Forever Bound To You
by lovelystarz
Summary: Blair Swanson was the sixth pretty little liar. Along with her friends Blair was bound to a big secret, a secret so devastating that she and her friends didn't even talk about it. They just referred to it as 'The Jenna Thing' until A came along. But Blair has her own secret, she has several secrets one of which involves the younger brother of one of her best friends...
1. Chapter 1

STILL MISSING. Blair Swanson looked at the copy of the Rosewood Observer that had been delivered to her house this morning and for the two hundredth time today she was looking at the paper again. It wasn't just the bold headline that had caught Blair's attention but also the photograph of Alison DiLaurentis or Ali as Blair more commonly knew her as. It was like the paper was issuing a reminder to everyone in town about Ali's disappearance but some people didn't the reminder, Blair certainly didn't need to be reminded of today's date and it's significance. It had been a year since Alison had gone missing, it seemed like only yesterday that the two of them along with their friends Spencer, Hanna and Emily. The last time the five of them had seen Alison was at Spencer's house, they were having a sleepover in Spencer's barn and everything seemed fine as far as Blair could recall. They had been drinking, laughing and generally having a good time and that night Blair couldn't even remember falling asleep, until she found herself being shaken awake by Aria and Hanna who told her that Alison and Spencer were gone. Spencer had returned moments later saying that she couldn't find Ali and she was pretty sure that she had heard a scream. That had been the start of a very long night for Blair and her friends. Blair couldn't believe that it had been exactly a year since Alison disappeared.

"Again with the paper? I know you miss Alison sweetheart but you can't keep torturing yourself like this Blair."

Blair looked up just in time to see her dad Reed pick up the newspaper and tuck it under his arm before sitting down on the kitchen stool beside her, with a worried look on his face. "It's just that there are so many unanswered questions dad, know one knows what happened that night. I've tried to piece everything I know together but it makes no sense. We don't know whether Alison left on her own accord or someone took, we don't even know if she's still alive dad. You here those statics about people who have been kidnapped and are usually killed within the first seventy two hours… It's frustrating not knowing what happened, Ali was with us having a good time and then I fall asleep not knowing that it would be the last time I saw her."

"You can't blame yourself for falling asleep Blair."

"But if I–" Blair began.

"No buts' Blair, what happened wasn't your fault and deep down you know that. Bad things sometimes happen in the world and unfortunately something bad happened here in Rosewood to somebody you knew. There was no way you knew that something like that was going to happen, none of us did." Reed said placing a hand on his daughter's shoulder and deep down Blair knew that her father was right.

"I guess the anniversary is just bringing everything up again, it's been a long year but yet it's gone by really fast." Blair admitted with a small smile before turning to her dad who was supposed to have left the house already to head to the airport as he had a meeting in New York tomorrow afternoon. "So what are you doing still doing here? I thought you would have been halfway to the airport already?"

"I should be but I decided to catch a later flight instead so I could spend more time with my daughter before I left for New York for five days. Speaking of which are you sure your going to be okay whilst I'm gone? I don't have to go if you don't want me to Blair. Just say the word and I'll cancel everything and stay here with you." Reed offered and Blair couldn't help but smile, her dad as insane and busy as he typically was always put her first

"And deny the world the chance to see Reed Swanson? People have been waiting for your latest book for eight months now and you know that the public appearances and book tours are all apart of it. Dad I love you for worrying about me but you need to go, your agent will kill the both of us if you don't go. I'm sixteen years old, I'll be fine for a couple of days and Petra will be here most of the time so don't worry about me." Blair assured her father as she her eyes wondered down to the newspaper that her father was still firmly holding onto. Perhaps it was a good thing that he had taken it off her as it meant that no longer was Alison staring at her with that look she always wore which practically said 'I know something that you don't know'. It was pretty much true as Ali had known everything including most of Blair's secret, things that she hadn't told anyone else not even her dad despite how close they were. There was one particular secret that Ali had been holding over Blair's head and the fact that her friend found it so easy to taste and manipulate her for her own enjoyment often wound up Blair. Sometimes for a brief second Blair was glad that Alison was gone and she hated herself for even thinking that. But it didn't change the fact that life had gotten easier since Alison's disappearance.

"Well… When you put it like that sweetheart I guess I have no choice but how about we do something quickly before I leave?" Reed suggested as he got up from his seat, putting down the newspaper to walk over the wine rack and pick up a bottle of wine.

"I like where your going with this dad." Blair began.

"Oh this isn't for you sweetie, I thought we could take it over to the Montgomery's to welcome them back into town." Reed announced and the smile on Blair's face instantly fell.

"Mi– Aria's back? The Montgomery's are back?" Blair quietly said, covering up what she was originally going to say before her father could notice anything. She was actually taken back by this news as Aria had moved to Iceland just over a year ago because her dad was taken a sabbatical. Blair couldn't remember the last time she had actually spoke to Aria as whilst they had kept in touch the first month or so of Aria being away eventually they just stopped. They all did, none of them really kept in touch or hung out with each other anymore. They were sort of friends but not really friends as they decided that it would be for the best after everything that had happened after Ali had disappeared as well as the things that had happened beforehand.

"You didn't know?" Reed asked and Blair shook her head. "Well why don't we quickly pop over and say hi. I bet Aria will be glad to see a friendly face and I'm betting that Ella will be dying to see me and this bottle of wine.

"Sure." Blair replied and less then five minutes later they were standing on the Montgomery's porch waiting for someone to answer the door, it was a perk of living on the same street. And as they waited Blair had ten million knots in her stomach that were making her feel nervous and very uneasy and she had the urge to run back to her house. Blair never used to feel like this when she came over to the Montgomery before but things had drastically changed between her and one particular member of that family before they left for Iceland. Blair was on the verge of telling her dad that they should go home when the door opened and there was Aria's mom Ella.

"Reed and Blair! What a pleasant surprise." Mrs. Montgomery began with a smile.

"We just thought we'd just quickly pop over and say hi and bring you this bottle, moving house always sends me to the bottle and given that you've moved across countries then you'll be needing this!" Reed said and Blair just rolled her eyes, most people weren't able to tell that her dad was gay but there were times where he made it blatantly obvious.

"Come on in, forgive the boxes." Mrs. Montgomery instructed and Blair followed her father inside of the house. The house practically looked the same except for all the boxes. "Aria, Bryon and Mike! Come down here, you have some visitors."

"How do you feel be back in Rosewood Mrs. Montgomery?" Blair found herself asking in an effort to be polite, if there was one thing her father had always wanted from her was for Blair to be polite and well spoken to everyone she came across.

"Honestly I'm glad to be back but I think it's going to take us all some time to adjust to being back in Rosewood." Mrs. Montgomery replied just as her husband joined them and greeting were once more exchanged between the small group before Mr. Montgomery and Blair's dad went off to the living room to talk leaving Blair with Mrs. Montgomery. "You have grown so beautifully since I last saw you Blair, your dad must be so proud of the young woman you've become."

"More like the other way round." Blair admitted as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs and she looked to see to that Aria along with her younger brother Mike had come downstairs.

"Blair?" Aria asked in surprise before walking over to hug her friend and Blair couldn't help but smile, it was honestly really good to see Aria again ahs hadn't changed much. Still as tiny as ever but lacking the pink highlights that she used to have in her hair. Seeing her old friend made Blair very nostalgic especially on today of all days.

"It's so good to see you again, I've missed you." Blair admitted as her and Aria let go of each other, Aria's leaving was kind of like the catalyst of the rest of their group breaking up and going their separate ways. Perhaps Aria's return could bring them back together how they used to be, however impossible it seemed as thing could never be how they were without Ali.

"I missed you too."

Mrs. Montgomery smiled at the two of them before turning to her attention over to her son who had yet to say anything. "Mike, aren't you going to say anything to Blair?"

"Hey Blair." Mike quietly said and the way of his behaving was causing his mother and sister to try their hardest not to laugh. Blair wasn't too sure what it was about but she had always found Mike to be rather endearing in a very sweet way.

"Hi Mike." Blair replied, directing a small smile at Mike and all of a sudden he became very bashful before excusing himself and running back upstairs. No doubt to the safety of his bedroom and Blair couldn't help but chuckle, he never used to be this nervous around her before he left for Iceland.

"I think he still has that crush on you Blair, I have never seen a girl affect him the way you do." Mrs. Montgomery said after a moment and Blair had to look down to avoid anyone noticing the blush slowly creeping up on her face.

"So are you still going out with Robert Manning?" Aria asked, no doubt moving the conversation along from the previous topic of whether her little brother had a crush on her former best friend. Blair was very grateful for the change of subject in a manner of speaking…

"Um… It's complicated, things have been pretty weird between us so we're kind of on a break and have been for the last three months." Blair admitted as she and her boyfriend Rob had decided to take a break for the summer and reevaluate things and where they stood when they returned back to school. Which was tomorrow much to her dismay. The downside of living in a town like Rosewood, there was nowhere you could hide.

"Sixteen years old and on a break! Such nonsense, honestly teenagers these days…" Reed loudly said from the other side of the room in regards to his daughter's relationship.

Blair couldn't help but sigh, if only her dad knew…


	2. Chapter 2

Walking down the hallways of Rosewood High towards her first class of the day and year Blair couldn't help but remember where she was this time last year. Alison had just gone missing and her dad thought it was best for Blair to go to school, to distract her whilst the police got on with looking for her friend. Blair could remember this time last year walking into the building and having everyone pointing and starting at her because of Alison's disappearance and how she was one of the last people to see Ali before she went missing. Blair ended up having a panic attack in the bathroom minutes prior to her first class because she couldn't deal with it, most of her life she had been invisible and people only ever saw her because she was with. Be it her famous father or Alison, the former it girl of Rosewood High but other than that Blair was invisible which she liked in an odd kind of way. She didn't like being the centre of attention like Alison; she'd rather be in the background. As she made her towards her English class Blair ran into her boyfriend Robert, who for some reason had recently become the last person she wanted to actually see.

"Hey I thought that was you." Robert began gently tapping Blair's elbow and she forced herself to smile, she wasn't sure why she was acting so weird towards him as it wasn't like he had done anything wrong. It was her who had suggested they take a break after all and really there was no reason for her to actually suggest such a thing. One day she had just said it and Rob had agreed to it and they had gone their separate ways.

"How was Cabo?" Blair asked in an effort to make conversation.

"Great I had an amazing time despite being with my folks for the majority of the summer, but what about you? How was Rosewood this summer?" Robert questioned.

"Very boring and uneventful as per usual, just got up to the usual. Went to Maine for two weeks with my grandfather whilst my dad was busy which was fun. He's teaching me how to sail…" Blair honestly said as Rosewood was one of those kind of towns where never nothing usually happened but every so often something big did happen. So Blair had been glad to escape for a while.

"So how's your dad?"

"Good, busy with work like always but happy as Larry and you know what he's like when he's got a new book coming out, so I'm just letting him to his thing." Blair replied and then it came, the awkward silence that she had been so desperately trying to avoid. She knew that her and Robert needed to talk about this summer, the break and where they stood right now but honestly Blair didn't want to.

"I really missed you this summer Blair." Robert admitted.

"Yeah I missed you too." Blair replied after a moment, trying to sound as convincing as possible but no matter how hard she tried she just didn't sound like she meant it in the same way that Robert had meant it. A welcome distraction arrived for Blair via her phone, it was a text no doubt from her day wishing her good luck on her first day. As well as pretending to complain about whatever tv show he had to go on to promote his latest book. But the text wasn't from her dad and as soon as Blair saw who sent it her stomach dropped to the floor…

_Blair, I still remember what you did last summer or rather who you kissed and it wasn't that pretty boy boyfriend of yours. I always remember. – A._

"Blair you okay? You've gone all white…" Robert asked and Blair honestly didn't know what to say because this text had freaked her out. There was only one person who knew about what happened last summer because Blair had only told this one person and that was Alison. She was the only person who knew which meant that Alison had sent her the text, which was impossible.

"Yeah I've just got to run, um… I'll talk to you later Rob." Blair wearily said before walking away, this had to be a cruel joke someone was playing on her as there was no way that Alison had just text her after all this time. Most of the town presumed that she was dead as did her family. Whoever was behind this made Blair feel sick as it was such a disgusting thing to do but she couldn't help but wonder about the possibility that this could be Ali given that Blair had told no one else about what happened and the other person involved wouldn't have said a word to anyone.

"Blair?"

Looking up Blair saw Aria with Emily both of whom were looking at her with concerned looks on their faces. "Hey guys…"

"You okay Blair? You seem kind of shaken up…" Aria noted and Blair forced herself to smile, the biggest smile that she could muster. There was no way she could tell them about this text from A, as Blair didn't want to get their hopes up if this was really a prank and there was no way she could tell them about last summer especially Aria.

"I'm fine, I just ran into Rob and it was a bit weird seeing each other after all this time apart." Blair replied, partially telling Emily and Aria the truth about what had majorly freaked her out.

"I heard you guys were on a break." Emily tentatively said as the three of them began walking together, it was almost like the old days.

"Yeah, I don't know what I want at the moment but my dad says that the upside of being a teenager you can blame everyone on not knowing what your doing and the hormones on not knowing what you want. I don't know what's wrong with me a Rob is a very nice guy, he's handsome but I really don't have any idea what I'm doing at the moment or if I still want to be with him. But I know I'm going to have to talk to Rob eventually, can't avoid him forever especially in a small town like Rosewood…" Blair wearily noted.

"So, I hear the new teacher's really hot." Emily said in an effort to distract Blair as the two of them along with Aria walked into their English class.

"And by hot do you mean 45, still living with his mom and starting to go bald?" Blair joked which caused them all to laugh as they took their seats near the back of the class. With Emily and Aria sitting in front of Blair as she preferred sitting in the back of the class.

"Is that Hanna?" Aria asked as their former friend Hanna causally breezed into class looking like she didn't have a care in the world.

"She's the "it" girl now." Emily explained to Aria, as she wasn't in the loop about how Hanna ascended to popularity and greatness during the time that she was away. Far cry from her role as Alison's lackey as people used to refer to her as.

"And where there's Hanna, there's also Mona." Blair added as Hanna's current best friend Mona walked into the class. Those two were like two peas in a bloody pod, and they were rarely ever seen without each other the past year.

**"**Mona?"

Emily turned back to share an amused look with Blair before she turned back to Aria. "Can you believe it?

**"**Wow… Talk about a makeover." Aria slowly said in shock and Blair couldn't help but chuckle, unfortunately she laughed a bit too loudly which attracted the attention of Hanna who turned and briefly waved at them before going back to her conversation with Mona. What's up with her? You guys fighting?"

**"**We didn't just fall out of touch with you, Aria. We all fell out of touch with each other." Emily slowly began.

"Em's right, we all kind of went our separate ways… Emily and I see each other probably the most out of all of us and even then it's not much. We occasionally grab lunch and we've been on a couple of double dates with Ben and Rob. I rarely see Hanna and Spencer is always busy, me and my dad have had brunch with her and the rest of the Hastings' a couple of times and that's about it. Speak of the devil, here she is…" Blair explained as Spencer walked into the classroom and shyly smiled at Hanna.

"They're not so close anymore either." Emily told Aria.

"So they're friendly, but not friends…" Aria figured just as the bell went and their new English teacher walked into the room and although Blair hadn't got a good look at him as began writing on the blackboard with his back turned to the class. He definitely didn't look 45 with a bald patch from behind so perhaps Emily was right… And then he turned around and Blair could see that Emily was indeed very correct as their new teacher was not only very good looking but he had a name to match; Mr. Fitz.

**"**Holy crap." Mr. Fitz said louder then he clearly intended for it to be and he seemed to have been addressing Aria when he said that and the entire class looked over at Aria. Which was made even more worse when her phone went ff which made the entire thing even more embarrassing.

"Sorry." Aria said as quietly fumbled around in her bag to get her phone and shut it off. Blair was honestly entertained by the entire thing, she thought that this was going to be a typical boring first day of school but apparently it wasn't.

"Uh, I'm Mr. Fitz, your new English teacher." Mr. Fitz began a she addressed the class although he didn't seem to notice when Emily turned around in her chair to address Blair.

"I'll take that apology now Blair."


	3. Chapter 3

The first few days of school Blair was just trying to get back into the swing of things after being off for so long. During that time Blair had managed to successfully avoid Rob despite being in four of the same classes as him, she used soccer practice and her piano commitments along with spending time with the recently returned Aria as an excuse. Rob had brought them but Blair knew that eventually she wouldn't be able to avoid him any longer without making him suspicious and that she would have to talk to him. Problem was Blair didn't know what exactly to say to him and then Blair still had to figure out this A issue. She still didn't know whether it had really been Alison who had sent her that text or some stupid not to mention totally inappropriate practical joke. But whoever had sent it Blair hadn't heard from them since that initial first message, although she had tried to message and call whoever it was back but the number was blocked. It was a mystery and Blair did love a good mystery…

As Blair jogged back in the direction of her house on her return from going on a run but as she passed Bridgewater Terrace she couldn't help but notice flashing lights. Something was going and as Blair walked closer to see what was going she saw that whatever it was had to do with the former DiLaurentis house. Blair said former because the house had been sold and a new family had moved into the house just week. Blair saw several cop cars along with EMT'S and countless amount of people, needing to know what had gone on Blair asked the closest person to her.

"Excuse me, has something happen?" Blair asked an elderly looking woman.

"Construction workers found a body in the backyard and they suspect that it's the poor DiLaurentis girl, the one whose been missing for the past year." The woman replied and Blair had to walk away as she felt physically sick at what she was hearing. If that was true then Alison had never left town, she had been in Rosewood this entire time buried in her own backyard.

Blair was in utter shock that she hadn't even realized Aria was standing next to her until she was forced to look at her. "Blair, what's going on!?"

"They found a body." Blair hoarsely said.

"Do they think it's Ali's?"

"Who else would it be Aria?" Blair dejectedly snapped before sighing. "I didn't mean to snap Aria, I'm juts in shock… I can't believe it but yeah they think it's Ali. Someone told me that construction workers found the body in the backyard."

"Oh my god…" Aria quietly said and Blair shared the sentiment, it was hard to believe that Alison was actually dead. She knew that most people including herself thought that Ali was dead but apart of her also believed that Alison was alive and off hiding somewhere. However with this new gruesome discovery the idea of Alison running off somewhere was now something of a distant memory given that her body had been found. "T-There's Spencer…"

Blair and Aria made their way over to where Spencer was standing and the three of the just stood there trying to process everything whilst they watched everything unfold in front of them. Blair could feel her eyes welling up but she told herself that she wouldn't cry, even more so when she felt Aria take her hand. "I heard the cops took Hanna to the police station today…"

**"**You don't think she'd ever talk about..." Spencer began looking over at Blair unable to finish her sentence but Blair knew what she referring to just like she knew Aria did.

**"**The Jenna thing?" Hanna questioned in a cold tone as she joined Blair, Spencer and Aria, glancing at the three of them before returning her gaze to the former DiLaurentis house. Blair felt herself flinch followed by a cold shiver down her back at the mention of 'The Jenna Thing' as it was something they never spoke up ever because of what happened, their parts in it and the consequences of that night. "We made a promise."

No one said anything, they didn't need to be reminded that they each made a promise never to say anything regarding 'The Jenna Thing' to anyone. It was a secret that they had all promised and were intending to take to their graves. Because if anyone found out their involvement then they'd all be going to jail for probably a very long time especially since they lied to the police about what they saw and did that night.

"I just can't believe that this has actually happened, that Ali is actually gone–" Aria began.

"We don't know that Ali is gone Aria, it might not even be her." Spencer replied but Blair could tell that Spencer didn't believe a word that she was saying. There was no way that the body buried in that house wasn't that of Alison DiLaurentis. But it was rather creepy how someone had killed Alison and then buried her in the grounds of her own home, Blair couldn't help but think of Ali's family. They had spent months searching for their daughter not knowing that she had been so close to them the entire time.

"Come on Spencer, it's probably like a million in one chance that it isn't Alison." Hanna firmly stated and Blair nodded in agreement.

"Ali's gone and we need to accept that." Blair grimly said and the others murmured in agreement and the four of them just stood there until the decided to go their separate ways. They all went home in their separate cars except for Blair who accepted a ride from Aria given that Blair had been running and that they were going the same way. The car journey was completely silent and for once it was a good thing as Blair didn't know what to say to her friend because she was struggling to put everything together including her emotions. Everything felt so damn complicated.

"Hey… Can you come in with me? I don't think I can tell them by myself." Aria admitted when they pulled up in her driveway and Blair nodded. She completely understood as they had just lost one of their best friends and right now they needed. The two of them got out of Aria's car and walked hand in hand into the Montgomery house where they found the rest of Aria's family sitting in the living room surrounded by empty boxes but laughing and having a generally good time together.

"Hi girls…" Mrs. Montgomery began and it took her moments to realize something was wrong given the ashen looks on both her daughter and Blair's face. Blair knew she was coming close to crying, which Aria was about two minutes away from crying herself. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Ali's body has been found." Aria uttered and the happiness and laughter just vanished and Blair watched as Mrs. Montgomery rushed over to hug her daughter whilst Mr. Montgomery and Mike walked over.

"Oh my days…" Mr. Montgomery slowly said. "Where?"

"Their old house in the back yard, come construction workers were doing something and found h-her. That's all we know, people are gathering outside the house and we ran into each other there and found out what the commotion was. Half of Rosewood PD are there so was the coroner, we saw them bring out her b-b-body in a bag." Blair said and she could hear her voice actually quivering as she spoke, along with her watering eyes much have made her look like a complete wreck.

"You poor girls, that poor family..." Mrs. Montgomery said as she pulled Blair towards her, engulfing both her and Aria in a comforting hug which made them feel somewhat safe for the briefest moment.

"I should probably get going home…" Blair quietly announced.

"Blair isn't your dad out of town?" Mrs. Montgomery asked and Blair slowly nodded, she had kind of forgotten about that. "I don't want you being home alone, I want you to stay the night here."

"Ella's right Blair, you shouldn't be alone at a time like this…" Mr. Montgomery added.

"I appreciate the offer Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery but I don't want to impose of you and I've got Milo the Dog to take care of, I can't leave him alone in the house all night. Don't worry about me, I'll call Petra and have her come over and stay over with me. Even if I didn't call her the moment she finds out, she'll be on her way over as Petra has always been more than a housekeeper to us…" Blair quietly said.

"Mike I want you to walk Blair home and stay with her until Petra arrives, is that clear?" Mrs. Montgomery instructed.

"Yes mom."

"I'll call you sometime tomorrow." Blair promised Aria, giving her a quick hug before she left the Montgomery house with Mike to walk the short distance over to her house. Like her car journey with Aria, Blair and Mike walked in silence until they had reached Blair's house and she unlocked the door and disabled the security system. Blair's pet beagle Milo walked to the front door and Blair picked him up before heading with Mike to the kitchen. They stood there in silence before Blair sighed and picked up her house phone and hit two on the speed dial and put it on silence. The phone rang for five seconds before it was picked up.

"Hello Blair." Petra, Blair's german housekeeper said and her rich accent came through over the phone.

"Hey Petra…"

"Liebling, what is wrong? Tell me right now…" Petra ordered using her nickname for Blair, ever since Blair could remember Petra had always called her by her name or Liebling, which meant darling in german and Blair had called her housekeeper by her name or various versions of grandmother and nanny in german. Given that Petra was the only close female mother figure that Blair had in her life.

Blair tearily laughed as she glanced over at Mike. "How do you know something is wrong? I could have just called to tell you that I was home after my run…"

"Miss Blair, I have been with you since the day you were born. You cannot hide anything from me as I know you better than anyone, I know when you are happy and I know when you are sad and you are sad so tell me what is wrong." Petra said and Blair could feel herself breaking.

"T-They found her, they found A-Ali's body Oma, C-Can you come home? I need you…" Blair croaked as she couldn't hold it in any longer and she just began crying and she had to grip on to the kitchen counter to keep herself steady as her legs felt like they would give any second.

"Oh my dear Liebling! I am so sorry… Of course, I will come right away. Be strong till then Blair." Petra said and moments later the line went dead and Blair kept crying, she just couldn't help herself, even more so when she felt a hand on top of hers; Mike's hand. Eventually Blair straightened herself up and wiped her face with her free hand, she could not believe she had spent god knows how long crying in front of Mike Montgomery, he must have thought she was deranged.

"Blair…" Mike began.

"S-She's dead Mike, Ali's gone and I know it but I just can't deal with that… Ali was there one minute and I woke up and she was gone. Someone killed her and buried her in her own backyard. I w-walked past her house so many times this past year hoping that she'd turn up but she won't now. She was one of my best friends and now she's gone…" Blair wearily said trying her best to reign herself in.

"I don't know what to say Blair to make you feel better, but if I could then I would say it." Mike said and for the first time Blair couldn't help but smile, Mike Montgomery hadn't changed since he was gone. He was still the sweet boy that she remembered.

"You know that you don't have to stay with me? You can go home, I'll be fine until Petra gets here. You can ran as fast as you can back home to avoid the rest of my emotional baggage, one of Petra's many jobs is to take care of that."

"My mom asked me to stay until Petra got here and I'm going to stay until she gets here. I'm not going anywhere Blair." Mike firmly stated and Blair smiled as best she could before removing her hand from Mike's and going to lean against the kitchen counter next to the six.

"Tell me about Iceland." Blair prompted.

"You want to know about my time in Iceland, why?" Mike skeptically asked.

"One of my best friends is dead and I need a distraction before I do the whole crying with Petra and then again with my dad when he comes home. So tell me all about Iceland."

The look Mike gave Blair was hard to decipher but she could see he was going along with this to cheer her up. "There's nothing much to tell, dad had a sabbatical and dragged us to Iceland for a year which was very cold and a weird experience for us all. Did I mention that it was cold?"

"You did."

"Then that's about it." Mike quipped.

"I kept all your letters and your postcards." Blair quietly said, whilst she had kind of fell out of touch with Aria she had kept in touch with Mike, the majority of the time they were in Iceland. The letters weren't great works of literature that you'd see in a museum someday but they had brought great joy to Blair whenever she received a new one and she always looked forward to receiving a new letter.

"You didn't reply to all of them." Mike noted as he crossed the room and stood right in front of Blair.

"Sometimes I didn't know what to say you." Blair admitted as sometimes she wasn't sure of herself with Mike. He made her feel ways that she shouldn't feel towards one of her friends younger brother. At some point Mike had stopped being Aria's goofy little brother and became something more to Blair which is why she never told anyone except for Ali about the they had last summer, that was more than an actual kiss and more towards the point of making out. Blair stood where she was and looked up at Mike who was hovering dangerously close to her.

"Funny I could say the same about you too Blair." Mike said as he wiped away the remaining evidence of Blair's tears.

"I have a boyfriend Mike." Blair quietly whispered.

"One that you don't even want to be with anymore otherwise you wouldn't be a break with him right now." Mike stated in a rather challenging manner.

"How'd you know that?""

"Heard my mom and Aria talking about it the other day." Mike replied and Blair couldn't help but smile. Of course Aria and Mrs. Montgomery were talking about her relationship.

"Right now everything is all over the place and I have no idea what I'm doing or what I want but regardless of that I want or what I don't want Rob is a good person Mike he is still my boyfriend." Blair said and Mike slowly nodded before leaning down and placing a kiss on her cheek and moving so instead of standing in front of Blair he was standing next to her. Mike held out his hand and Blair looked at it for a moment before she took it.


	4. Chapter 4

Blair stared at the plate of food in front of her and pulled a funny face, Petra had made her breakfast but she didn't really have an appetite given that today was Alison's funeral. Today was the day that they were all supposed to get closure over everything that happened in regards to Alison's disappearance and death but there were more questions than answers. They didn't even know when or how Alison had died but as Blair reminded herself that wasn't the focus of the day. In the last couple of days Blair had calmed down quite considerably and had become less emotional although she cried this morning when her dad walked though the door at 9am after catching one of the earliest flights that morning so he could be with her. Blair had told him not come home, to stay in New York but she should have known better than to think her dad wouldn't come home.

Blair's dad Reed always wanted to have a child, to be a parent because of his father John who had always a positive influence in his life. So when he was 26 years old Reed Swanson set out to become a father using his sperm, an egg donor and a surrogate. Nine months later he became the proud father of a beautiful baby girl with small tuff of auburn hair and blue. He raised Blair as a single parent while balancing his writing career and loved her more than anything else in the world. Reed Swanson was the kind of parent who there for every school play and all that other stuff. If not then it was Petra, the Swanson's housekeeper who had been with them since just before Blair was born.

"Just because your speaking in another language doesn't mean I don't know that you're talking about me." Blair casually said looking over to her dad and Petra who speaking very quietly in what Blair believed was Polish. They couldn't talk in German as Blair was very fluent due to Petra speaking to her in polish since she was born. So they spoke in Polish, which annoyed Blair to no end.

"Liebling you need to eat something, I know that today is a difficult day but you need your strength." Petra said, whilst Petra wasn't a live in housekeeper ever since Alison's body had been discovered she had been staying over at the house so she could be with Blair.

"Petra's right sweetheart, you've barely eaten in days." Reed added and rather reluctantly Blair picked up her knife and fork and began to eat her breakfast. They did have a point and the last thing Blair wanted to do was collapse at the funeral. "Have you spoken to the girls?"

Blair nodded and waited until she had swallowed what she was chewing before she speaking. "I've spoken to Aria quite a bit and Hanna called me last night whilst Spencer sent me a text earlier. I haven't from Emily but Aria says she's doing okay, just in shock really like the rest of us…"

"What about Robert?" Petra asked.

"He called this morning to see how I was doing and if he could do anything, Rob's going to meet us at the church." Blair wearily said as she continued eating, Petra had been very surprised to see Mike with Blair instead of Rob when she had come over the night Alison's body had been found. Blair had to admit that Rob had been great the last couple of days which had just made everything harder. Blair knew that after the funeral she needed to finally decide what she was going to do about the Rob situation as Mike being back in Rosewood had complicated things even further.

Blair sat at the breakfast bar and finished eating her breakfast before going upstairs to get ready for the funeral. Up until today Blair hadn't been to a funeral of someone she had known, well she had been to funerals before but never to one of someone close to her. The closest she had come was her grandmother's funeral eight years ago. But that was a bit wishy washy given that her family had been estranged from her grandmother for over twenty years. It all started when Blair's father came out when he was sixteen years old to his family and it didn't go quite as expected. Whilst his father John and brother Grady were accepting of his sexuality, his mother Sylvia wasn't. From what Blair had been told by her Uncle Grady, her grandfather had enough of his wife refusing to accept their son for who he was and divorced her seven months after her father had come out. None of them had seen her since until the news of her death. They went to the funeral only for the service and that was it.

When it came time to head to the funeral Blair asked if they could take separate cars as she needed sometime to get her head together. When Blair arrived at the church she was met by Rob, who placed a kiss on her cheek. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Better than before, it's just that this whole thing is so surreal and I can't believe that I'm actually here at Ali's funeral. It's finally sinking in that after today she'll actually be gone and we'll never see her again. I have no idea what I'm going to say to her family…" Blair wearily admitted which caused Rob to take her hand.

"Just say what feels right, they know that you loved Alison." Rob said and Blair nodded in agreement. "Is that your dad over there with Petra? I thought he was still in New York?"

"He was but he took an early flight this morning so he could be here." Blair replied as she saw her father talking to other mourners. Looking around Blair could only guess that there were close to a hundred people standing outside which was a bit insane but she didn't dwell on this too much as her and Rob made their way inside to the church. Given the amount of people finding somewhere to sit was of vital importance and as she walked in with Rob, Petra and her father she came face to face with Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis; Alison's parents.

"Blair, it's so good to see you again." Mrs. DiLaurentis wearily said.

"Mr and Mrs. DiLaurentis I'm so sorry that it's under these circumstances." Blair said as Mrs. DiLaurentis took her free hand in her own.

"Thank you Blair, you being here would have meant a lot to our daughter, you and the other girls meant a lot to Alison." Mr. DiLaurentis said and Blair managed a small smile. She hadn't seen the DiLaurentis family since they moved away but they looked the same as when Blair had last saw them with the same exhausted and strained looks they had on their faces. But this time they now looked heartbroken too.

"Blair I was thinking that you along with the other girls could sit up front with me, I figured that's what Alison would want as you were all her best friends." Mrs. DiLaurentis stated and Blair briefly glanced over at Rob and her family.

"Of course." Blair replied letting go of both Rob and Mrs. DiLaurentis' hands and making her way up to the front of the church t the empty pew that Mrs. DiLaurentis had pointed her in the direction of. Blair sat by herself very much aware of the people looking at her despite not being able to see them but she could very much here them. But Blair did nothing to acknowledge them, she just sat there in silence until she was joined by Emily, Spencer and Hanna. "Thank goodness, I was losing my mind sitting here by myself… Nice dress Hanna."

"Thanks Blair." Hanna replied and Blair couldn't help but roll her eyes in bemusement.

"I can't believe that we're actually here and that Ali's dead." Emily wearily said and Blair slowly nodded and it was clear to her that maybe Emily wasn't as fine as Aria led her to believe.

"I know." Spencer murmured.

"Never thought that this would happen." Hanna added and the four of them sat there and stared at the enlarged photo of Alison that was propped up near her coffin. Until Aria arrived and hey all moved down to let her join them.

"Poor Ali." Emily quietly said.

**"**Can you believe what a scene this is?" Hanna asked referring to the countless people that were here for the funeral. The whole thing seemed like a rather extravagant affair which seemed to have captured the essence of Alison DiLaurentis perfectly in Blair's opinion. Ali was one of those girls who loved being the centre attention and was annoyed when the spotlight was away from here for too long even at her own funeral. But there was no chance of that happening.

**"**Alison would have loved it." Aria noted.

"Course she would although she'd probably ask why there wasn't more cute boys…" Blair added.

"Popular in life and death." Spencer said and Blair couldn't help but agree with that as it summer Alison up perfectly. The five of them sat that pondering their thoughts when Hanna opened up her bag and handed her flask of no doubt alcohol over to Emily.

"No thanks. I don't—" Emily began.

"Today, I think you do." Hanna reasoned and Emily slowly nodded before taking a swing of the flask before handing it over to Blair, who was glad that she did have breakfast. As drinking on an empty stomach never ended well for her, as Blair took a swing of the flash Aria's phone went off and they couldn't help but look over in curiosity as everyone knew what today was. So the who hell would be testing her just before a funeral started?

"Anyone we know?" Blair couldn't help but ask.

"No, it's just my mom sending me a text." Aria slowly began glancing at her phone before turning to her friends with an odd look on her face which Blair couldn't decipher. "Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from 'A' are we?"

Blair felt her stomach drop at the mention of receiving a message from A and based on the looks on Hanna and Spencer's faces they too received a message. A part of Blair was relieved that she hadn't been the only one to receive a mysterious message from this A although it did make her worry that someone was targeting them all.

"Oh, my god… It's Jenna." Spencer announced.

"Shut up!" Hanna stated as her along with the Blair and the other girls all turned in their seat to see that it was Jenna being assisted in sitting down in one of the pews on the other side of the church.

"What is she doing here?" Blair couldn't help but ask as Jenna being here at Alison's funeral and back in Rosewood made no sense. Last time any of them had heard Jenna was somewhere in Philadelphia at a school for the blind after her accident. So seeing her was a big shock to the system. Hanna looked like she was going to say something but she stopped when Mrs. DiLaurentis came and sat down with them.

"Did you see that Jenna Marshall was here? I didn't realize she and Ali were friends." Mrs.. DiLaurentis began and Blair didn't even know how to respond to that.

"They weren't." Spencer eventually said and Blair couldn't help but look back over her shoulder to look at Jenna. It didn't make any sense as Alison and Jenna weren't even friend, she was pretty sure that the two of them hated each other. Which begged the question why was Jenna here at the funeral?

Blair was starting to believe in coincidences, first Ali's body turning up days after the one year anniversary of her disappearance. Then Jenna coming back to town after 'The Jenna Things' had been mention for the first time in months. Blair didn't like it, she didn't like it at all. But she had to put all of those thoughts to the back of her mind as the service began and they began to say goodbye to Alison.

An hour and a half later they came out of the church after the service had finished, it had been a beautiful service and Blair felt herself close to welling up on several occasions especially when it came time to bury Alison. But having Emily, Hanna, Aria and Hanna with her kept her going and the four of them walked out witch each other. Now that the majority of it was over, Blair felt like there had been a huge weight had been lifted of her shoulder and it was clear her friends felt the same way.

**"**Emily, Blair, Spencer, Aria and Hanna?"

**"**Do we know you?" Spencer asked on behalf of the group as a tall blonde man who Blair didn't recognized approached them. But it was clear that he knew who they were.

**"**I'm Detective Wilden. I understand you were all good friends with the victim."

**"**Yeah, we were." Aria slowly said.

"I'm gonna need to talk to each one of you." Wilden said and Blair wasn't too sure what was going on but she wasn't going to jump to conclusions, especially in front of a cop. But she couldn't believe that this guy had the audacity to approach them just after they had buried Alison.

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing." Blair politely informed him as she didn't understand why he wanted to talk to them. They had spoken to the police already and surely if he wanted to know what happened all he had to do was look at the statements they had given over a year ago.

**"**And I intend to go over every one of your statements as this is no longer a missing persons investigation. It's a murder. Rest assured, I will find out what happened that summer." Detective Wilden promised and Blair wasn't sure whether that was a promise or a badly veiled threat. Whatever it was, it didn't sound good.

**"**Do you think he knows about?" Aria began.

"No. How could he?" Hanna quickly reasoned.

"Hanna's right, no one else knows about that apart from us except for Ali and she's not going to be talking to anyone anytime soon. Unless Wilden pulls out an Ouija board and tries talking to her from beyond the grave. We just need to stay calm and remind ourselves that there is no need to panic–" Blair said before being interrupted by the sound of her phone along with several other going of and judging by the close proximity of the noise. She realized it was the other girls phones and they each pulled out their individual phones.

"Oh, my god!" Aria slowly began.

**"**It's from—" Hanna murmured.

"A." Blair wearily finished glancing up briefly from her phone to look at the others.

**"**I got one too." Emily added.

"I'm still here, bitches…" Spencer began reading out the text.

**"** ...And I know everything. A'." They all finished simultaneously before looking at each other, there was no way that these texts were coming from Alison as they had just buried her. It was impossible. But apparently something else was going on if they were being hounded by this mystery A.

"H-How is then even happening–" Emily stammered.

Blair shook her had. "We can't talk about this, at least not here given that there is a cop sniffing around… So we pay our respects to the DiLaurentis' for a little while longer, mingle and make small talk with people here and then we slip away…"


	5. Chapter 5

Blair idly sat drinking her ice tea as she sat with the rest of the girls at the Apple Rose Grille, it took a while but they eventually slipped out away from prying eyes to somewhere they could talk freely. The big subject of their discussion wasn't Detective Wilden but rather the reappearance of one Jenna Marshall, the Jenna from the infamous 'Jenna Thing'. Having her back in town along with the Detective Wilden on the scene was kind of complicating things which was putting them all on edge for good reasons. They were lying about their involvement in 'The Jenna Thing' as well some of the things they didn't tell the police about the night Alison had disappeared. All five of them had a lot to lose if the truth had about the secrets ever came to light. And with A on the scene telling them that she knew everything including their own secrets was rather daunting given that their secrets could hurt people.

**"**That cop acted like we were suspects or something and it looks like he has some serous bone to pick with the five of us… Did you hear him when he was all like I'll go over each of your statements and I will find out what happened? He could be a potential problem…" Blair noted as she took a sip of her ice tea.

"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily questioned and Blair shrugged her shrugged her shoulders, she didn't know what they looked like to Wilden and she wasn't sure whether she wanted to know. All Blair was certain of was that they had to be on top of their game when they were around Wilden and be careful of what they said to him.

"I don't think we looked guilty, I think we looked like five friends who had just lost their friend and if Wilden thinks grief look like guilt then he is in the wrong profession." Blair eventually replied.

"And why would we look guilty? We haven't done anything wrong." Aria questioned.

**"**Except lie about the Jenna thing." Hanna couldn't help but point out and Blair just sighed, the thing with Jenna just kept rearing it's ugly head. Blair was pretty sure at the current rate that it was going to hang over their heads for the rest of their natural born lives.

**"**We promised we'd never bring up the Jenna thing again, remember? It never happened." Spencer said ad as harsh as that sounded she did have a point, that night wasn't a distant memory to them it was supposed to never exist. As far as everyone knew they had been at Emily's house when Jenna had been blinded by a smoke bomb that they had thrown into the Cavanaugh garage. Everyone thought that Toby Cavanaugh, Jenna's step-brother was responsible for blinding Jenna and as such was sent to reform school.

**"**Have you found a way to forget? I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night." Aria asked and they fell silent, whilst Blair no longer had flashbacks or woke up in the night because of that she never she'd never be able to forget that night. Without a doubt it was the worst thing that the six of them had never done and whilst Blair didn't dwell on it much she did feel guilty about what happened. A girl was blinded because of what they did and a boy was sent to reform school. That day was the day that Blair really saw the selfish and uncaring side of Alison and the fact that she seemed to have little remorse made Blair question her friendship with Ali.

**"**Aria, it was an accident. We never meant for it to happen and we all feel bad about but what's done is done. We can't go back on it, not after all this time…" Blair began before getting distracted by Hanna pouring the remaining contents of her flask into her drink. "Really Hanna?"

"It's medicinal. Cramps!" Hanna retorted.

"Sure…" Blair sarcastically replied.

**"**I don't get it, I don't get any of this… How does 'A' know something about me that only Alison knew?" Emily asked.

**"**Ali knew all of our secrets, but...We never knew any of hers. Think about it really? We all told Alison out secrets but did she ever tell us any of hers? Racking my brain I can't think of a single thing can you?" Blair asked the others and Hanna, Aria all nodded in agreement except for Spencer.

**"**I knew some." Spencer eventually said.

"Go on."

"Talk."

"I can't. Spencer said with a shake of her head.

"Spence! You can't drop a bombshell like that on us and just not say anything else. Whoever this A is knows all our secrets and if we have any chance of figuring how they do then we need to know Ali's secrets. Look I'm pretty sure I'm speaking on behalf of myself, Hanna, Em and Aria when I saw I don't want to spend my time living in fear of A dropping our dirty little secrets at anytime. You need to tell us and you need to tell us now!" Blair firmly stated and the rest of the girls murmured in agreement.

"She'd so kill me if I told you." Spencer began.

**"**She's dead Spencer, there's nothing Ali can do to you anymore so stop wimping out and tell us already!" Blair retorted.

"Ali was seeing someone that summer, an older boy who had a girlfriend." Spencer announced and Blair was surprised but not too surprised that Ali was seeing a boy who already had a girlfriend given that Ali had no sense of boundaries.

**"**Who was it?" Emily asked.

**"**She never told me his name."

**"**Then that's only half the secret." Hanna challenged, clearly eager for more information."

**"**It's more than you ever got from her."

"I've missed this, us all hanging out together even if we've brought back together because of recent events. So much has happened in the last year and we let break us apart and we did nothing to stop it, we just let it happen. As inappropriate as this may sound but there is a silver lining to everything that has happened and I think that it's the five of us being back together and hanging out like we used to do." Blair said as she had missed her best friends during the last year, things hadn't been the same without them around and Blair was glad to have them back no matter how long it lasted for.

"I miss Ali." Emily said as she fingered the friendship bracelet that Ali had given her and Blair couldn't help but role her eyes, even in death Ali was the centre of attention.

"I can't believe you still wear that." Hanna replied pointing out that Emily was the only one who still wore the friendship bracelet that Ali had given them all last summer when she came back from her vacation. They all wore their individual ones constantly but four months after Ali had disappeared Blair had taken hers off and stored it away as it was a constant reminder of Ali. No matter how much Blair missed her, she didn't want to be haunted by Ali.

**"**Ali still wears hers. Wore." Emily defensively replied before correcting herself in regards to the tense she used when referring to Ali and her bracelet.

**"**When Ali didn't come home that night, I knew something terrible must have happened, but there was always some part of me that imagined someday she'd just show up." Spencer wearily said and they all nodded in agreement.

"I just thought that she was pulling a typical Alison stunt in order to get attention. For a while I thought that she was doing this to piss off her parents and teach them a lesson because they said no to say ridiculous demand of hers." Blair honestly admitted.

"Yeah. I used to think that maybe she'd just...Run off with some guy." Aria added.

"Laying on a beach somewhere." Emily continued.

**"**Or getting a tan out by the pool with that hot lifeguard." Hanna stated and all five of them began to softly laugh until they heard the sound of a cane and they all looked to see that Jenna had arrived. Blair couldn't believe that Jenna was here, it was like she was everywhere at the moment. Wordlessly Blair opened her purse and laid down money to cover everyone's drinks and they all quickly and quietly left the Grille before going their own separate ways. Blair went home and got the surprise of her life when she saw Rob sitting on the steps of her front porch still in his suit.

"Rob…"

"Hi Blair…"

"What are you doing here Rob?" Blair asked as she made her way over to Rob and sat down next to him, she wasn't expecting him to be here when she got home.

"I was worried about you considering what today was and you just disappeared so I thought you might have come home but you weren't here. Then you didn't answer any of my calls so I figured that I'd wait for you to come as you were bound to come back eventually." Rob explained and Blair felt incredibly guilty, here Rob had been waiting for god knows how long and she hadn't even bothered to pick up any of his calls. She was a terrible girlfriend.

"Did my dad not let you in or something?" Blair asked slowly rising up from the porch, she was going to have some words with her dad. Even though her and Rob were on break it didn't mean her dad could not let him into the house and treat him like he ended things and broken her heart.

"No he did, I just wanted to stay outside." Rob replied as he stood up too.

"I'm sorry that I took off without telling you and I didn't answer any of your calls, I was with the girls and we were catching up with each other and reminiscing about old times and Ali. I kind of lost track, I'm sorry…" Blair quietly began.

"You don't need to ever apologize for that Blair, you lost one of your best friends and your now reconnecting with your other best friends. I've been worried about you the last couple of days especially today. But you did great today, you handle it with such grace and strength when you could have just fallen apart and no one would have blinked an eye; I wouldn't have blinked an eye." Rob said and there was something in Blair's heart that just ached for him and so she took a step closer to him and let her hands rest on his tie. Blair stayed like that for a moment before her hands drifted from Rob's chest to his face and without hesitating she kissed him. It wasn't a kiss that was bursting with so much passion that it would make your entire body tingle. It was a soft and reassuring kiss that to be honest Blair needed after the most intense few days of her life.

"We haven't done that in a while." Rob said after they both pulled away.

"No we haven't." Blair replied with a small laugh

"You sure your okay?"

"I think so, or at least I think I will be." Blair admitted and minutes later the two of them said there goodbyes given that it was getting late and it had been a long day. Making her way into her house, Blair quietly shut the front door before heading into the living room where her father sat reading a book. "You can stop pretending now, I know you were watching us dad.

"Ah! You caught me… Can't blame your old man for wanting to know what you get up to. Anyway I know you've had a long day but I have something I want to show you Blair, hopeful cheer you up a bit." Reed said and rather slowly Blair went and sat down next to her father, once she had her dad picked up a second book sitting next to him and handed it to her.

"The House of Octavius?" Blair asked as she looked at her father's latest book the second book in a trilogy that he was currently working on.

"Look inside."

Blair opened the hardback book and turned several pages until she reached the dedication.

_Dedicated as always to my beloved Little Swan Blair, as I watch you grow through my own eyes I am reminded everyday of why I am proud to have you in my life. _

Blair couldn't help but swallow a lump in her throat, her father had published twelve soon to be thirteen books and every single one of them were dedicated to her. Other people were in some of the dedications but she was in every single dedications as her dad often told her and others that he hadn't become a success until Blair had been born. And here in print for the entire world to see her father had written about how proud of her and Blair looked at him knowing that he would be the furthest thing from proud if he knew the truth about his beloved Little Swan.


	6. Chapter 6

Blair was having a horrendous day and she was starting to think that the entire world had it out for her, not just A. It had all started this morning when the details of how Alison had died were revealed on tv by the not so nice Detective Wilden. Blair had been eating breakfast when she found out that Alison had receive a blunt force trauma to the head but her actual cause of death had been suffocation. That wasn't a nice thing to hear first thing in the morning so Blair went to school to forget about her problems but that didn't last long. As she along with Hanna, Spencer, Emily and Aria had been summoned to the principals' office via the school intercom system. Then A chose that moment to send Aria a delightful message that said _dead girls walking_ and sure enough that was a sign of what was to come. As when they arrived at the principal's office it turns out that Detective Wilden was behind it all as he wanted to talk to them and go over their statements about the night Alison disappeared practically word for word. According to Wilden what they were telling him was practically the same thing that they had said last year and he was convinced that they had rehearsed their stories.

The whole thing kind of spooked them all to the point where obstructing of justice was brought up during lunch when Hanna said lying wasn't a crime. But then things got even worse by the appearance of Jenna. It was like she was everywhere and then Aria invited Jenna to sit with them and Blair felt like strangling her. It was the most awkward thing that Blair had ever experienced as what the hell did you say to the girl who you helped blind? And things weren't helped by A texting them _If only she could see how guilty you look –A._

"Swanson!"

Turning around as she left the school to head home Blair saw Mike and smiling to herself she stopped and waited for him to catch with her. Despite this being a small town she hadn't seen him in a few days even though they went to the same school. Judging from his bag sports bag Blair knew it was safe to assume that he had just come from lacrosse. "Hey there Montgomery, how was practice?"

"Fine… What are you still doing here? I swear you don't have soccer practice until tomorrow?"

"That is very much correct Mike and I'm rather impressed that you know that, I actually had the first yearbook meeting of the year I'll have you know and as one of the editors I was required to be there. Trust me I would have preferred to have been at home having Petra making me a nice snack but when duty calls I have to answer. It's called being responsible …" Blair quipped as the two of them began to slowly walk. "You know I'd give you a ride home but my dad needed to borrow my car as his car is in the shop, so I'm afraid that we're both walking."

"Don't worry about me Blair, I'm fine but what about you? I'm not an expert in this but isn't this the part where your boyfriend comes in and offers to give you a ride home? Mike began and Blair could not help but roll her eyes, he never seemed to let this boyfriend thing go.

"Rob's busy with his after school job but I sure if he wasn't we wouldn't be here having this conversation Mike. I don't know how you have a problem with him Mike, Rob's a really nice guy. Would you believe that yesterday he sat outside my house for hours waiting for me to come home because he was worried about me?" Blair said realizing moments after that was quite possibly the last thing that she should have said to Mike but looking at him she could see he wasn't impressed.

"I could have done that."

"But you didn't, that's the point!" Blair retorted and the two of them stopped walking and the look that Mike gave almost made her melt. "Don't look at me like that Mike…"

"Like what?"

Blair rolled her eyes. "Like the sun comes out of my ass."

"Does it?" Mike said tilting his head down in order to see if that was actually true and Blair moved away before he could actually find out whether or not that was true. Both their bags dropped to the ground as Blair desperately tried to move away from Mike but she was too slow and before she knew it Mike had scooped her up and was spinning her around like she weighed nothing. The two of them were laughing and Blair couldn't believe that Mike had the nerve to try something like that and if it had been anyone else Blair was certain that she probably would have hit them. But not Mike. The was just something about him that Blair loved.

"You really seem to like touching me Mike, wonders what would happened if I let you have your way with me…" Blair teasingly said after Mike had let her go and as soon as she had said it Blair backed away in horror but she couldn't stop looking at Mike. And it seemed like he couldn't stop looking at her either.

"Excuse me?" Mike spluttered.

"Oh my god…" Blair slowly uttered as she felt her cheeks going a fire engine red as it all sunk in ever further. She wanted a whole to open up in the ground and swallow her whole as she was that embarrassed by what she had just said. Blair had no idea what was coming over her lately, it was like she a different person. "I can't believe that I just said that, it's been a long day or better yet this is all a very bad dream."

"Blair…"

"I have never said that to anyone in my life." Blair quietly said, she had practically propositioned Mike.

"Well except me, but I'm glad to know that I'm the only one who brings out this side of you." Mike teased and Blair rewarded him for that comment by hitting his chest several times. It was so not funny!

"This isn't funny Mike! Your underage and if anyone had heard that god know what they may have thought or what would have happened! I cannot believe I made a suggestion like to a fourteen year old boy when I have a boyfriend." Blair hissed as she shoved Mike who could not stop laughing before picking up her bag. Mike Montgomery was going to het her into a heap load of trouble and Blair wasn't sure how she felt about that right now. He no doubt say that as a good thing.

"Blair…"

"Not now Mike, I'm too busy worrying about going to jail." Blair wearily said as between propositioning a minor and the Jenna thing along with obstruction of justice, it was pretty much a guarantee that Blair was going to end up in jail. For a very long time by the looks of it. The more Blair thought about it the more realized that it was a definite possibility and it scared the hell out of. Blair was so engrossed in it that she didn't realize that Mike had pulled her off to the side behind a tree where it was kind of hard for anyone to see them. Unless they were looking hard enough.

"Relax Blair, your not going to jail…" Mike assured Blair.

"Easy for you to say." Blair quietly murmured.

"Won't let it happen."

"It's nice to see that you have so much faith in me Mike, it's very much appreciated. I'll of course be expecting you to raise my bail money and be at my trail when your optimism fails to save me from a jail term…" Blair drily replied as she looked up at Mike. She couldn't exactly remember when Mike had gone from being just Aria's little brother to becoming her actual friend. In the last year, well eighteen months things had quite drastically changed between them.

"Blair Swanson you are so odd." Mike said.

"Yet for some reason that doesn't stop your little quest for the two of us to end up together Mike Montgomery?" Blair challenged knowing full well that she was right about this.

"I like you, I've made no secret of that for the last year Blair and I know that you like me otherwise we wouldn't have kept in touch over the last year, we wouldn't be here. And you wouldn't be worrying about going to jail because you made a rather suggestive comment towards me." Mike pointed out and Blair knew that he was right. At some point Mike had gone from just being Aria's little brother to Mike, actual person who was funny, sweet and kind of hot who Blair liked spending time with. It was the last thing Blair and expected to happen and some small tiny part of her wished it hadn't. Mike was Aria's brother and things were oh so damn complicated and looked like they were only going to get further complicated. But despite knowing this Blair wasn't walking away.

"Your Aria's little brother." Blair said making an argument for the sake of doing it in the vain and most likely unsuccessful attempt to deter Mike of her. Whatever she felt for Mike, she didn't want to hurt anyone especially him.

"And? Your one of Aria's best friends."

"I turn seventeen in a week! Your not even fifteen yet! You were only thirteen when you kissed me–" Blair began as she recalled the night that Mike had kissed her, it was during the summer round about eight in the evening and his family had thrown a barbeque. The two of them were in the back yard together talking about god knows what, Blair for the life of her could no longer what that particular conversation was about when Mike kissed her. She remembered being surprised by it and instead of pushing Mike away she pulled him closer, and they had spent the better part of ten minutes sort of making out until Hanna and Aria came to find them.

"When I kissed you?" Mike laughed. "That's funny Blair because I remember you kissing me back and for an awfully long while too. And so what if I was only thirteen then? You were only fifteen and most importantly I turn fifteen two weeks after you turn seventeen! We're teenagers Blair, it's not like there is a massive age gap between us.

"I have a boyfriend."

"Who you don't want to be with anymore!" Mike retorted.

"Do you have an answer for everything?" Blair asked in exasperation despite being rather impressed that Mike wasn't going to take no for an answer when it came to her. It was sweet and damn impressive.

"When it comes to you, yes."

"You are so not cute when you do this." Blair offhandedly said despite being fully aware that she was smiling.

"Yes I am."

"That head of yours is going to blow up one day because of your sheer arrogance Mike Montgomery, I don't know where you get that ego from because the rest of your family are quite possibly the most modest people in this town." Blair quipped but Mike didn't laugh, there wasn't even a hint of a smile.

"Why haven't you broken up with Rob yet? The two of you have been on a break for months and I know that you told Aria that you wasn't even sure if you wanted to be with him anymore." Mike said and Blair knew that they were having a serious question although Blair was more focused on strangling Aria about talking about her relationship problems with Rob within ear shoot or Mike.

"I don't want hurt him Mike, I'm scared of breaking his heart and that is the last thing I want to do. Rob doesn't deserve that not after everything he has done for me..." Blair admitted.

"But it's breaking your heart being with him, your not happy Blair." Mike quietly replied and Blair knew it was true, she had realized that her relationship with Rob was coming to an end. There was nothing that they could do to fix it, things had kind of come to an end. Blair knew that but she just didn't want to hurt Rob, he had been there for her so much in the past year and after all of that she didn't want to throw him away like a piece of trash. She didn't want to hurt such a good guy who had done nothing particularly wrong, Rob had been a great boyfriend to her. Blair just couldn't' help the way she felt and she knew Mike was spot on about how she really felt and she knew she had to end things this week, it wasn't fair on her or Mike and especially Rob.

"He's been a huge part of my life Mike, I don't think I can end things with Rob and then jump straight into another relationship. It wouldn't be fair on Rob or you and pretty damn insensitive."

"I'll wait Blair, I'll wait as long as it takes…" Mike assured and Blair smiled, she was a terrible person who somehow attracted good men. She didn't deserve Rob or Mike.

"You really must have a thing for me Montgomery!" Blair teased as the two of them walked away from the safety of the tree they had been talking behind and continued their walk home. As they walked Blair's phone went off and pulling it out her school bag Blair saw she had a message and opening it she saw that it was a picture message. The picture was of her and Mike, taken less than ten minutes ago when Mike had picked her up and had been spinning around. Followed by a message.

_Looking v. cosy with one of your BFF'S brother Blair… Wonder how Aria and Rob will feel about this?"_


	7. Chapter 7

Blair yawned as she made her way to her locker, last night she had somehow been convinced by the other girls to go into the woods to the shed that they all used to hang out by when Alison was still alive. Emily told them that her mother suggested they get together but it was her idea that they all go to the shed. Blair it all very weird and it was like going to the shed to make some kind of shrine to Ali. As much as Blair missed her friend, she thought it was silly to make some kind of shrine to Ali as she was the furthest from a god despite the fact that Ali acted like she was. The whole shed thing had taken longer than expected and then Blair had to finish off a paper so she was practically dead on her feet. With a very long day ahead of her. And as she arrived at her locker Blair saw Rob standing there with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"That coffee had better be for me…" Blair began as a cup coffee was something that she would kill for right now.

"It is and by the looks of it you need it." Rob replied handing over the coffee. "Um… I was hoping that we could talk, if you don't mind?"

"Sure." Blair replied although she did become a bit weary when Rob placed a hand on the small of her back and led her away to somewhere a little less open and crowded where they could talk. Blair wasn't alarmed too much, however she figured that Rob wanted to tell her something important away from prying eyes and eavesdroppers.

"So… This isn't easy for me to say Blair."

"Hey whatever it is you can tell me, you know that right?" Blair stated as judging by how nervous Rob was, something was wrong and Blair could only imagine what on earth it was. But already she had a bad feeling in the gut of her stomach, however she told herself that whatever it was, they'd deal with it head on and go from there. The two of them had gone through some hard times before and they could do it again.

"I think that we should break up." Rob announced and Blair wasn't expecting that in the slightest, she thought that someone was sick, dying, in jail or something of that proportions. She just wasn't expecting for Rob to say that he wanted to break up and it felt like she had just been punched in the guy by this news. There were so many emotions that Blair was going through at the moment but then she realized this was what she wanted, right? To end things with Rob so that she could eventually be with Mike. But no matter what Blair felt or did not felt it still hurt.

"Wow…" Blair said after a minute and she had to take a sip of her coffee in order to process all of this information. It was a lot to take in especially when she was feeling exhausted.

"Come on Blair, you can't really be too surprised by all of this? We haven't been okay for months now." Rob said and Blair didn't know what to say or how to respond to this. "We've been having problems for a while and then we decided to take that break and now we're back here after spending a couple of months away and I feel like something has drastically changed between us."

"I know, so have I." Blair admitted, whilst she knew that this conversation was coming Blair never expected to be having it in a school hallway of all places/

"Then why didn't you say anything earlier?" Rob asked and Blair bit down on her lip.

"For a while I knew we we're drifting apart but I thought that us going our separate ways for the summer would do the whole distance makes the heart grow fonder. Then summer ended and nothing changed for me and then all this stuff with Ali happened and you were being so great and the last thing I wanted to do was break your heart. You've been with me through everything since Ali disappeared and I just didn't want to hurt you. I knew what I was doing wasn't fair and how I couldn't string you along–"

"I get it Blair I really do as I have a confession to make." Rob began.

"Over than the fact that you're dumping me?" Blair quipped which couldn't help but make the two of them laugh, as much as Blair was taken aback by this she knew it was for the best. They'd both be happier going their separate ways.

"There's this girl who I met in Cabo who doesn't like to far from Rosewood–"

"–And I say again, wow…" Blair interrupted as her day was going from bad to worse but that seemed to be a reoccurring theme as of late. The only question now was when she was going to finally be overwhelmed by all of it and have some kind if mental breakdown. At this rate Blair was predicating that it would be next Thursday.

"It's not how it sounds Blair, I met Megan whilst I was in Cabo but nothing happened, I have never cheated on you. I didn't want to act on my feelings for Megan whilst we we're still together which is why I decided to break up with you when we both came home and then Alison's body was found. I didn't want to be that cold heartless bastard who broke up with his girlfriend hours after one of her best friends body had been discovered. Then there was the funeral…" Rob explained and Blair couldn't blame him, they had both known their relationship was over but had avoided breaking up with each other because they didn't want to hurt each other.

"I believe you." Blair stated, she knew Rob was a good guy and he would never cheat on her. It wasn't his style given that his parents got divorced when his mother cheated on his father when he was a kid. The entire thing was big and messy, including the divorce until Rob's father remarried.

"I don't want you to take this as any reflection upon yourself Blair as you are amazing, it's just things have changed, feelings have changed." Rob said and Blair swallowed a lump in her throat.

"I never wanted things to end up this way…"

"Neither did I."

"I still want us to be friends, if that's even possible." Blair admitted.

"Of course, you've been a huge part of my life Blair and I still want you in my life. We were friends long before we got together and just because we won't be together anymore doesn't mean I don't want to be your friend." Rob assured her and Blair couldn't help but smile, however it wasn't much of a smile because as much as she was glad to have the truth out and no longer having to feel guilty about having feelings for Mike. Blair felt incredibly sad that the fact her relationship with Rob was over.

"I should probably get going, I have a class to get to..." Blair wearily said, with a strong need to flee from this conversation now that the bulk of it was over.

"Sure I get it, are we going to be okay?" Rob asked.

"Yeah we're fine." Blair said before walking away and heading back to her locker, taking a long sip of her coffee as she allowed everything else to sink in. It was all a bit weird given how the circumstances went about and Blair was going to have to adjust to the fact that she no longer had a boyfriend and was now free and single. Funny thing is, she didn't feel any different… When Blair reached her locker she opened it and grabbed her chemistry textbook which she needed for second period before shutting her locker door and as she made her way to class Blair ran into Spencer and Aria.

"You look how I feel." Spencer couldn't help but point out.

"Bite me." Blair retorted as she took a sip of her coffee, she felt so tired like she was about to fall asleep at any possible moment. It was going to take several cup of coffee's to get her through the day. She was exhausted and her boyfriend had just broken up with her, all Blair wanted to do was go home climb in bed and eat ice-cream and watch films all day.

"Blair!" Spencer hissed bringing Blair back from wherever it was she had drifted off from.

"What is up with you?" Aria asked.

"Nothing I'm fine." Blair said forcing a smile on her face, she was so not up to telling the girls about what had just happened.

"Really? Because you look like the walking dead and you're acting so zombie like that you missed the fact that Toby Cavanaugh is back in school and that Wilden just left with Hanna! They walked right past us Blair and you didn't even batter an eyelid, you just stared into the distance with some vacant look on your face!" Spencer stated.

"Oh?" Blair wearily replied.

"Is that all you've got Blair? An oh?" Spencer demanded.

"I'm sorry, that's all I've got…"


	8. Chapter 8

Despite her reservations and the fact that she just wanted to stay home and be anti-social given that Rob had broken up with her yesterday Blair found herself being dragged along to Noel Kahn's party by Aria. Normally that wouldn't be a problem as Blair liked Noel and they were pretty friendly with each other as they had been lab partners last year and Rob was pretty good friends with him. But right now Blair wasn't in the mood for one of Noel's outlandish parties as she didn't feel like celebrating given everything that was going in her life at the moment, however Aria didn't seem to agree with that which is how Blair ended up here at Noel's party. It was failing to cheer up Blair in the slightest and that was without the alcohol given that she was driving. Aimlessly walking around the party Blair saw many of her classmates on their way to becoming drunk as they frivolously drunk alcohol and having fun being so carless and Blair wished things were so easy for her. Caught up in watching her classmates Blair didn't notice Hanna approach her until her friend grabbed her wrist and starting pulling her along.

"Hi Hanna, nice to see you too." Blair said as she continued to let Hanna drag her along but Hanna didn't even reply just kept pulling Blair along until they got outside and joined Aria, Emily and Spencer.

"Found Blair, so what's up?" Hanna asked and suddenly it all made sense to Blair as to why Hanna had dragged her out of the party, the five of them needed to talk and Hanna had been sent to go and find her.

"Toby Cavanaugh got into a fight with Ben over Emily." Aria explained and Blair couldn't help but raise one of her eyebrows in interests, that wasn't something that she was expecting to hear and she had to admit that it was very weird to hear. Toby and Ben getting into a fight, over Emily? It didn't make any sense but there must be some kind of explanation for it.

"For what, himself? Spencer asked and Blair couldn't help but laugh, it was totally inappropriate thing to do but Blair hadn't laughed in days and she kind of felt like she needed to. There had been so much sadness in her life lately and not enough laughter. It was weird for Blair as grew up in a house that was always filed full of laughter and love, but recently her life was filled with grief, worry and guilt, more importantly lies and secrets.

"If we hadn't asked you about Ben, would you have told us about this?" Aria asked and Blair realized that she was missing some information but it seemed like the wrong time to ask what that information was. If it was anything important Blair knew her friends would have told her if it concerned the five of them so she brushed it off as something going on with Ben and Emily. It seemed like no relationship in Rosewood was perfect sailing at the current moment.

"Toby is not a good guy, Emily. He could be seriously dangerous." Spencer said putting extra emphasis on the word dangerous when it came to talking about Toby.

"If he's such a bad guy, why'd he take the fall for us?" Emily asked and Blair had to admit that she had a point as they were the ones behind Jenna becoming blind yet it was Toby who had been punished for what happened and sent to reform school. Blair couldn't really say anything about whether Toby was dangerous as she rarely interacted with him before he was sent away. The only thing that she knew was that he was watching them in Emily's bedroom the night 'The Jenna Thing' happened and even then it was all based on Alison's word.

Aria frowned. "Is this another secret? Do you know something that we don't?"

"Guys, why don't we just, like chill, and talk about this somewhere else? When we're alone." Blair suggested as the last thing they really needed to be doing was talking about Toby and secrets out in the open around their classmates, even if they were too busy getting drunk. They couldn't take the chance of someone possibly overhearing them given that they had Wilden breathing down their necks at the moment. They needed to talk in private and here wasn't exactly private, this conversation needed to be stopped now and carried on at a later date where they could speak freely without worrying about any possible eavesdroppers.

"I… don't even know what "just us" means anymore." Aria said referring to how they weren't exactly alone anymore given Wilden and the mysterious A who seemed to know everything about them, including their dirty little secrets.

"Yeah, uh... Let's talk about it tomorrow, okay? Are we still meeting up at the shed?" Hanna asked and Spencer nodded which made Blair internally groan, she so did not want to be going to the shed but Emily was making a big deal about how they should do something to remember Ali so she was stuck going. Hanna left after this was confirmed and Blair sighed, this party was getting even less fun and more sucky by every passing minute.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure. Why not?" Aria added before backing up a few steps and getting ready to turn around.

"Where are you going? Emily asked.

"The gallery. I promised my mom." Aria explained before taking off which just left Blair, Emily and Spencer together although this didn't last too long as pretty soon after Maya came over and joined them. Maya was the new girl in town who lived in the DiLaurentis' old house, she had become fast friends with Emily from what Blair had seen and she herself had been introduced to Maya who seemed like a nice girl. Although Blair hadn't really got to know Maya as she had been in her own little world for the last week.

"Have you checked out the photobooth they've got in there?" Maya asked.

"No. Show me the booth." Emily replied.

"Hey… You guys want to join us?" Maya asked and both Blair and Spencer both quickly shook there heads at the offer.

"I think I'm going to head off home, I'm not really feeling in the party mood and I'm in so much of a lousy mood that I'd be terrible company." Blair said being truthfully honest for the first time in days, well Blair couldn't even remember when she had last told the full truth as she had been telling several white lies and then a few huge lies quite recently. It was becoming all too easy for Blair to keep track of the lies she was telling, but keeping track of the truth and being honest was much harder than it should have been. But that was Blair's life now.

"I think I'm going to head home now." Spencer added.

"Okay, your loss!" Maya chimed before dragging Emily off.

"So I know why I don't want to be here anymore, but what's your excuse? I thought you wanted to spend less time at home given that Melissa and that fiancé of hers moves into the barn?" Blair questioned as she knew that Spencer was pretty annoyed that her older sister managed to convince her parents to give her the 'barn' when Spencer had been working on it for ages and was promised it as a reward if she got good grades.

"I wish that was the problem…" Spencer quietly said and by her tone of voice Blair picked up that something was wrong. Normally she wouldn't worry as Spencer wasn't Spencer if she wasn't worrying about trying to out do her sister or her grades but the feeling Blair picked up on told her that this problem wasn't about grades or earning extra credit.

"Why what happened?" Blair asked.

"Forget it."

"Spence, this is me your talking to." Blair pushed. "I may not be as smart as you or neurotic but I know you and I can tell when something is really bugging you even after all this time, so spill. You know i won't tell anyone…"

"What about you Blair? You've been an utter space case these last couple of days, what's up with that?" Spencer said in a blatant attempt to shift the attention off of her and before Blair could answer her phone started going off in her bag. Pulling her phone out, Blair checked the caller id and saw that it was Mike. Blair looked at her phone before rejecting the call, she wasn't ready to talk to Mike yet as she needed to get her head together before she spoke to him and figured out who the two of them would even work. "Who was that?"

"No one important." Blair said with a shake of her head.

"You didn't answer my question about why you've been acting so spacey…" Spencer couldn't help but point out.

"Rob broke up with my yesterday." Blair announced.

"B…"

"I'm fine Spencer, well I'm trying to be fine… Things haven't been right for a while and we went on that break hoping some time apart would achieve that whole absence makes the heart grown fonder thing. But it didn't, it actually made Rob's heart grow fond of someone else as he met this girl Megan whilst he was on holiday. Rob didn't do anything with her for my sake but he wanted to end things when we both got back and then all this Alison stuff came off and Rob didn't want do it straight after I had just buried one of my best friends. So he waited a few days and spurned it on my yesterday morning, hence Blair the space case…" Blair explained.

"I am so sorry Blair." Spencer began.

"Don't be, things weren't working and we both knew and Rob had the courage to do what I wasn't able to do. I'm just having a bit of a hard time accepting that it's actually happened and my dad's had to leave town again because of his book so I haven't been able to tell anyone what happened. I didn't want to tell you guys because we've got bigger problems than my boyfriend dumping me for some girl…" Blair wirily said as her and Spencer headed towards the cars and she couldn't help but notice Spencer's weird reaction to when she said Rob had left her for another girl. "What is it Spencer? Now I know something is going on with you..."

"Melissa's engagement to Wren has been called off." Spencer tentatively said.

"I heard."

"It got called off because Wren kissed me and Melissa saw the whole thing but now I'm getting blames for the entire thing. I've tried to explain to her that Wren kissed me but Melissa doesn't want to listen and just blames me and my parents took Melissa's side as always." Spencer explained.

"Wow…"

"Hey… If you want you can stay at mine if you want? Petra won't mind, in fact she'd rather welcome it and no one will be shooting you dirty looks over the breakfast bar. And because I'm such a good friend, I will even let you give me some pointers on this government essay that I have to write." Blair quipped gently nudging Spencer in the ribs.

"I don't know Blair."

"Well I do, now we could both go our separate ways and be miserable at home but instead we are going to go back to my house and be slightly less miserable together. Your not going to argue your way out of this one Spencer as I'm not taking no for an answer on this."


	9. Chapter 9

With sunglasses covering her eyes Blair walked through town with Emily, Spencer, Aria and Emily and the current hot topic was the fact that Hanna had done a real number on her boyfriend's Sean's car the night of Noel Kahn's party. No one knew why Hanna had done it, neither did Hanna but the car had taken quite some damage although it was quite a write off. Blair had expected Hanna to be freaking out about what she had done and at the very least grounded but apparently not, here she was with them playing the entire thing off and making it out like it was no big deal. Blair knew that if she had done something like that he dad would have grounded her for a minimum of two months, her dad may be the fun gay dad but he laid down the law when he had to.

"So your mom was totally cool without he fact that you wrecked Sean's car? There was no shouting or Hanna I'm so disappointed with you/ how could have been so stupid lectures in the slightest?" Blair asked in disbelief as the five of them walked to where a memorial was going to be set up for Alison.

"I did not wreck the car I just damaged it and actually everyone's been pretty mature about it." Hanna explained and Blair was still having a hard time believing what had happened. She had never known Hanna to ever do something so out of character and intense but then again they were all learning things about each other and Alison that they never knew before.

"Oh." Emily quietly said.

"There is no oh, we're just being groans ups about it, that's all." Hanna retorted and Blair couldn't help but chuckle as they reached the destination, it was one of those small recreational outdoor areas where you could just sit and observe the coming and goings on of Rosewood.

"Okay so the town is going to put in a new bench put the new bench and we'll plant the flower beds and there's going to be a pathway of art tiles." Aria explained as Blair and Spencer sat down on a bench and Blair stretched out her legs as she leant back into the bench, all she needed now was a nice cold lemonade and she'd be content. They had decided to have something made to commemorate Alison and her memory but also for the person who had killed Ali, they wanted to have something for her killer to look at being constantly reminded of what they had done if then even still lived in Rosewood. Blair thought it was a good idea, not to mention it killed two birds with one stone.

"Art tiles?" Spencer asked.

"Messages, pictures, memories." Emily clarified.

"Aww, like little headstones." Hanna quipped and Blair couldn't help but snicker, it was inappropriate but also happened to be kind of funny.

"Hanna!" Aria scolded.

"What!?"

"We should each do something." Emily suggested.

"As nice of a thought as that is Em, have you met me? I cannot do anything creative or arty in the slightest, that gene seems to have evaded me despite who my father is. You've seen inside our house and read his books and know me well enough to know that creativeness along with my auburn hair is not something I get from my father. So I'm going to have to skip on the tile but Aria can make mine for me and i'll slap my name on it at the end…" Blair idly stated and received disapproving looks from both Aria and Emily because of her comment but she chose to ignore them given that she was being honest about her lack of creativity and they knew. There was a reason why Blair didn't take art; she couldn't draw to save her life which is why Aria was the artsy one and Blair was the typical girl next door with the unconventional family dynamic in their group. They all had their parts and played them very well in Blair's opinion.

"I've had Alison's bracelet since the day we found in the woods and I do not want this responsibility anymore." Hanna said pulling out Alison's friendship bracelet from her purse and holding it out for somebody to take. They had found it a couple of days ago in the woods when they attempted to finally go to the shed but they had gotten spooked by something and started running and then they found Alison's bracelet.

"I'm not taking it, sorry…" Blair quickly said.

"I do not want." Aria added.

"Seriously, someone take this…" Hanna stated waving the bracelet around until Spencer finally caved in an took the bracelet.

"Look at us, a bunch of babies!" Spencer lectured using her scary and intimidating Hastings voice which Blair was convinced she had since she could talk. If Blair had to describe Spencer in two words, she'd say scary and smart as Spencer was amazingly smart and didn't take any nonsense for anyone. "There's nothing that A can do or say to get us into trouble without making trouble for herself."

"You sure it's a her?" Hanna asked and from behind her sunglasses Blair rolled her eyes, although they couldn't be sure Blair reckoned that A was a female as no male she knew signed off texts with XOXO and called a bunch of girls his bitches. Blair had no idea who A was but for some reason she felt that A was a female.

"Him or her, it makes no difference." Spencer replied as she leant over and pulled out her laptop and began to type and Blair slid her sunglasses up so they were sitting on the top of her head so she could glance over to see that Spencer was entering her details into some website.

"What are you doing?" Aria asked.

"I'm going to block all messages from people I do not know. IM's, texts, emails, everything… Screw you A." Spencer explained and when she finished typing Blair motioned for her to hand over the laptop so she could do the same. Blair liked Spencer's idea of blocking out A from their lives, it was the first real productive thing they had done since A came into their lives and honestly they should have thought about this sooner.

"Hasta la vista A!" Blair chimed as she finished entering her details and as such erased A from her life before turning to the others." Who's next?

"I'll go." Emily said taking the computer from Blair as Spencer stood up.

"I spy with my little eye something that begins with F." Spencer stated in a cheerful manner and Blair looked up in time to see their english teacher Mr. Fitz riding past on a bike and boy did he look good. Whilst Blair liked english, it wasn't a class that she paid much attention to until the arrival of their incredibly young and handsome new teacher which was Mr. Fitz who certainly very nice to look at first thing in the morning instead of a calculus textbook.

"Hey Mr. Fitz." Hanna called out and Mr. Fitz looked over at them and offered a wave.

"Looking good Mr. Fitz!" Spencer added.

"Such form!" Blair said and it caused them all to giggle in response, this was what five teenage girls were supposed to be doing instead of blocking out a mysterious and anonymous stalker/blackmailer from their lives.

"My turn." Aria said pulling Blair up from her seat to take her place and then taking Spencer's laptop from Emily so she too could enter her details in and once and for all be rid of the Big Bad A.

"There are teachers you don't want to see on a bike and there are some that you do wanna see on a bike…" Spencer noted and Blair couldn't help but murmur in agreement as they watched Mr. Fitz ride off into the distance before she pulled her sunglasses back down. Mr. Fitz was such a good looking man and he had given them all a well needed boost by riding past for them all to swoon over him to their hearts content. Although however good looking and nice he may be, he was their teacher.

"I do not want to see Mr. Glory on a bike." Hanna stated and Blair couldn't help but blanche in response, she had gone from thinking about Mr. Fitz to Mr. Glory in the space of two seconds which was not nice and the mental picture of Blair trying to imagine Mr. Glory on bike getting all hot and sweaty would probably haunt her forever.

"I don't want to see Mr. Glory in motion of any kind, that says it all." Emily added.

"Me too, so can we please stop talking about him and get back to Mr. Fitz?" Blair questioned steering the conversation back to it's previous topic as she slid her glasses back down her face now that Mr. Fitz was out of sight.

"Ahh, Mr. Fitz–" Hanna began.

"Hanna! It's your turn." Aria interrupted and Hanna went over to sit next to Aria to do her thing whilst Blair stood and idly looked at her shoes, or rather the scuff marks that were on them. Petra was going to kill her if she didn't find a way to remove them as they had only just brought them but in Blair's defence running through the woods tended to do that to shoes.

"You've talked to Ben?" Spencer asked Emily, making conversation and referring to who Emily had broken up with Ben moments prior to Toby Cavanugh coming in and all but kicking Ben's ass for Emily. Blair had been so surprised that Emily and Ben had broken up as the two of them went well together and it didn't seem like there was any problems going on with the two of them at the moment. But what did Blair know?"

"Nothing to talk about." Emily replied with a small shrug of her shoulders.

"So your really done?" Aria asked.

"It's okay, I'm fine."

"Would you believe that is the same thing Blair told me when I asked about Rob?" Spencer nonchalantly said and Blair's head snapped up from the ground the moment she heard this as she hadn't been expecting Spencer to kind of announce that she had broken up with Rob. Blair knew that she had to tell her friends but she was kind of waiting for the right time. "Blair, I am so sorry… it just came out."

"Spence it's fine, they were going to find out anyway and what better way to find out now since Emily will be going me in the newly single lonely hearts club." Blair replied, doing her best to make a joke about the entire thing.

"Blair have you and Rob broken up?" Aria questioned and Blair slowly nodded.

"Yeah, it happened a few days ago… It was a long time coming, even more so recently as Rob met some girl whilst he was on holiday and he really likes her and wants to make a go of things with this so called Megan girl. So he dumped me and now I get to be the poor little giraffe that everyone gets to fawn over and take care of her…"

"B, why didn't you tell us?" Hanna asked.

"I was planning to it just never seemed like a good time and to be honest I'm pretty much over it, we ended things on good terms and now we both get to be happy and be with other people. Rob had the decency to not do anything with this new girl until he ended things with me, so there's nothing really for me to be angry about as I was the one who suggested the break as I wasn't happy." Blair replied with a smile as she didn't want her friends to be worrying about her, things were looking up for them all and she didn't want to bring them down with the fact that she had just be dumped.

"You sure your okay?"

Blair looked over at Aria. "I'm fine, in fact I am better than just fine I am really good."

"I wish we had a drumroll for this, here we go…" Hanna said bringing them all back to the reason that they were here a she finished typing and clicked on the button that we block all and any anonymous or blocked messages whatsoever. "We are official A-proof!"

"Listen all those tiny little messages floating through the air all around us." Spencer said as the five of them all looked around their surrounding knowing that they were safe from A and to be honest it felt quite good knowing that they didn't have constantly keep looking over their shoulders and worrying about receiving messages from A.

"Yep and none of them from A." Blair quipped in a cheerful manner as it kind of felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Not just hers but all of them as they could finally put A behind them, literally and go back to living normal lives.

"This feels like a good thing." Emily added.

"Of course it's a good thing, out of mind and out of sight." Hanna stated as Emily joined her and Aria on the bench whilst Blair and Spencer both stood up and whistle the five of them all relaxed in peachier, a leaflet was blown through the wind and landed right by Aria's feet who picked it up. The leaflet was actually one of the missing posters that had been put up in town when Alison had disappeared but this one was different as someone had write in red marker 'Ding Dong the Bitch is Dead.' The moment that Blair saw this she immediately looked around to see if she could see anyone as there was no way that this leaflet just happened to come across them with those written on it. But Blair along with the other girls couldn't see anyone and Aria crumpled up the paper and with that they left.

"I can't believe what was on that poster…" Emily eventually said.

"Look can we not talk about it? This isn't our problem anymore so let's not even entertain what sick joke someone has clearly pulled." Blair bluntly said not meaning to sound harsh or like she was jumping down Emily's throat, it was just that they had just gone A free and Blair didn't really want to jump back in. She wanted things to get back to normal or as normal as it got since Alison's body had been found.

"Blair's right, we don't need to be focusing on the poster instead we need to be focusing on the fact that our very own Blair Swanson is turning seventeen in a few days!" Hanna said in a rather excited manner and Blair just smiled. The only other thing than shopping and a hot guy that got Hanna all worked up and excited was a birthday party. "So what's the plan Blair?"

"We're not having another party at my house Hanna, last year things almost got out of control with that party you threw for me. This year I'm just thinking something simple, like we all hangout and have a sleepover or something. I just want us to hangout and do normal things…" Blair stated and she was quite surprise that Hanna was very receptive to this idea, Blair thought she was going to have to fight her on this.

"Sounds good."

"I'm already looking forward to it." Spencer added.

Twenty minutes later the five of them had split up, well most of them did but Blair was with Hanna who wanted to take her shopping in order to get her a kick ass outfit for her birthday. Hanna had also said something about getting an outfit that would show off her body and make the boys drool which Blair promptly ignored. However she agreed to go shopping with Hanna to distract her friend from her recent problems and do the whole normal thing. "Hey I'm going quickly go into the Grille and grab a coffee, do you want anything?" Hanna asked.

"Ice tea, please." Blair politely said and Hanna nodded in response before going inside the Grille whilst Blair waited outside and whilst she waited, Blair was approached by none other than Mike. Given everything that had been going on in her life Blair hadn't spoken to Mike, but she had seen him around school occasionally. "Hey Mike…"

"Hi Blair, I thought that was you."

"And correct you were." Blair replied with a small chuckle but Mike didn't laugh, instead he was looking at her in a weird way that Blair couldn't figure out because of her sunglass so she had to take them off to see that Mike was actually frowning at her. "Mike, is there something wrong?"

"You've been avoiding me." Mike said and Blair tried her hardest not to react too much to this.

"I haven't been doing such a thing, I've been busy with a few thing as my life does not revolve around you Mike Montgomery." Blair joked although she was kind of lying as she had been avoiding Mike ever since she had broken up with Rob. It wasn't because he had done anything wrong, it was just that she needed time to herself for a while.

"Well it seems like it Blair, you don't answer my calls and I barely ever see you around anymore, so you can't really blame me for thinking that your avoiding me." Mike quietly said and Blair felt terrible, she knew she wasn't leading Mike on as she did have feelings for him but she was kind of stringing him along at times and he didn't deserve.

"Rob and I broke up." Blair quietly announced and she could have sworn that Mike's face lot up given by the smile on his face. It seemed to be the best news he had heard which didn't surprise Blair as since he had come back to Rosewood all Mike wanted to know was when she was going to break up with Rob.

"Is that so?"

Blair slowly nodded. "It happened a couple of days ago and it didn't go the way I thought it would go but the two of us are over, both free to do whatever we want and see whoever we want now.

"How do you feel about that?" Mike asked.

"Well I'm not as thrilled as you are about it given that Rob has been a huge part of my life but I'm relieved in a way… The two of us weren't happy anymore and we both wanted to be with other people. I warn you now you have some big shoes to fill if your going to be my boyfriend Mike Montgomery." Blair replied

"I like the sound of that." Mike said as he took a step closer to Blair and their fingertips gently brushed against each others.

"Of what?"

"Being your boyfriend."

"Course you do." Blair drily said trying to keep a straight face but it was kind of hard to when Mike was looking at her the way he was even with the goofy yet sweet looking smile he had on his face. Blair would be a liar if she didn't admit that she was a tiny bit scared of this as Mike was Aria's little brother and god knows how she'd react to the news of one of her best friends dating her little brother. Relationships were scary and often required a leap of faith which was what Blair was going to do, take a leap of faith with Mike and pray that she didn't drop like a rock.

"Do you want to go somewhere together?" Mike suggested.

"Trust me I'd love to but I have plans with Hanna, she wants to go to the mall and help me pick out an outfit for my birthday. I'm just waiting on her to come out with our drinks, going to the mall is not usually my thing but I figured what the hell and my dad did say I could put a small dent in the credit card." Blair admitted with a small smile.

"That's okay, I'll call you later?"

"I'd like that very much." Blair replied and after a quick glance at her Mike walked past her and Blair just stood there and let out a sigh. Her day seemed to be getting better and better by the hour, all she needed know was a pony and she'd die happy. Blair stood outside the Grille with what was probably a full on grin on her face even when Hanna came out holding out their drinks.

"What was that?" Hanna demanded and Blair knew she was in trouble or rather potentially in trouble if she couldn't play this off and make it go away.

"What are you talking about Hanna? What was what?" Blair asked in a nonchalant manner, acting all innocent and pretending like nothing had happened and she had been all by herself whilst Hanna had been in the Grille.

"You and Aria's brother Mike, I saw the two of you with my own eyes Blair and it looked like he was seriously flirting with you which should be creepy as he's Aria's brother but everyone always knew that Mike's always had a crush on you Blair…" Hanna stated and Blair knew she could possible regret telling Hanna this but that's what friends did and she no longer had to worry about A dropping the news.

"It wasn't exactly a one sided thing Hanna." Blair quietly said and at first she thought that Hanna hadn't heard her but then it became apparent that the news was taking some time to sink in and Hanna was still trying to process it.

"YOU? You had a crush on Aria's brother! OMG Blair, you dark and creepy horse!" Hanna demanded her eyes growing to the size of spaceships as she processed this no doubt juicy piece of news.

"Kind of a bit more than a crush Hanna, Mike's kind of my boyfriend now…" Blair revealed as she took her ice tea out of Hanna's hand and took a sip for it and then she waited. Blair slowly started counted back from five in her head and once she reached zero, she heard a squeal that would have destroyed a normal person's eardrum.

"YOU AND MIKE? When? How? Who made the first move? I want to know everything Blair!" Hanna squealed and Blair couldn't help but smile, it felt nice being able to tell someone about this although Blair knew she was going to have to swear Hanna to secrecy as no one else could know about her and Mike until she figured out a way how to tell Aria.

"It's a long story Han." Blair said knowing that it wouldn't do anything to stop Hanna from wanting to know all the details, the story could be two hours long and Hanna would want to know everything and more.

"I've got time."


	10. Chapter 10

Blair stood in the school hallway watching various people go by her, the bell had gone a couple of minutes ago and the majority of the student body were leaving the building to go home or head to some sort of after school club. But Blair wasn't doing either, in fact she was waiting for someone, which is why she was leaning against a particular persons locker waiting for them to arrive. It took a couple of minutes but finally Mike had arrived at his locker and judging by the look on his face he was surprised to see Blair. The two of them had agreed to keep the fact that they were seeing each other a secret for a while, at first they decided to keep things between them until after Mike had turned fifteen but after talking about it a bit more they had agreed to wait a about two months before letting people know. The slight issue with age wasn't the reason behind the waiting, it was how Blair was going to tell Aria that she was dating her brother which she needed time to think about. Mike didn't understand why Blair needed two months when she could come right out and say it to Aria but as Blair kept reminding him it wasn't a girl thing and he wouldn't understand.

"Hey stranger!" Blair said with a bright smile as Mike seemed to be a bit taken a back by being surprised by her in such a manner.

"Blair, what are you doing here?" Mike asked.

"Waiting for you, it's what girlfriends do for their boyfriends Mike…" Blair said in a cool and causal light manner as she moved out of the way to allow Mike to get to his locker and grab whatever he needed to. "I just wanted to see whether you had any plans now and if you didn't I wanted to know whether or not you wanted to do something with me for a few hours."

"Really? And what brought this whole thing about? I thought we agreed that people weren't going to find out about us and the two of us going somewhere together might set the rumor mill off." Mike couldn't help point out and Blair knew he had a point, in a town like Rosewood people did like to talk but that didn't change the fact that Blair wanted to spend some time with her boyfriend. Knowing that they shouldn't have this conversation here Blair shut Mike's locker and then took his hand in her own and pulling him down the school hallway not caring who say, not that there were many people about anyway. Blair dragged Mike towards the main entrance pulling him along with her. When they had finally come out of the school building Blair, still holding Mike's hand dragged him over to her car.

"Get in…" Blair prompted, motioning for Mike to climb into the passenger's side of her car.

"Blair…"

Quickly glancing around Blair checked that no one she knew or recognized was in the car park she took a few steps closer to Mike. "I know what we agreed on but it doesn't mean we can't hang out with each other, we've done it before when we were just friends, all it means is that we just have to be careful about what we do in public until we come out to everyone…"

"And by careful about what we do in public, do you mean this Blair?" Mike asked as he placed one hand against Blair's cheeks and the way he said her name sent a shiver up her spine. There was something about Mike that made her heart beat faster and Blair had no idea how he did it. Blair knew that it wasn't just the whole new and exciting part of starting a new relationship phase that every couple went through because it had been there before they had even started dating each other. A year and a half ago Blair would have thought someone was crazy if they had told her that Mike Montgomery would be able to make her knees go weak and get her heart racing by just looking at her.

"E-Exactly." Blair said and seemed like becoming incoherent was now being added to the lift of things Mike seemed to bring out in her.

"And if I kissed you right here and right now? What would you do?"

"I'd forgive you this one time." Blair quietly murmured as Mike lowered his head to meet hers, so their lips could meet in a simple touch. It was a small kiss at first but then Mike moved in more and they kissed again. And again, with each kiss they grew more passionate, and more intimidate to the point that Blair had do remind herself that they were in public and that Mike was still fourteen. So ever reluctant Blair pulled away.

"Where do you want to go?" Mike finally asked.

"I don't know yet, I hadn't got too far in my plan when I drifted off during last period and decided that I wanted to go and do something with you after school. The is whole spontaneity thing hasn't really worked out as I didn't plan it out too well but I do know is that I want to be with you, I want us to go somewhere and just be together." Blair truthfully admitted and Mike's reaction to her saying this caused Blair to beam. Right now Blair was incredibly happy, her and Rob had gone their separate ways on rather good terms and now she was seeing Mike not to mention with A gone from her life, there was nothing to ruin the happiness that Blair was feeling.

"Okay, I'll go wherever you want. I just text my mom and tell her I'm out with friends." Mike replied and with a smile Blair opened the passenger side door for him before going over to the driver's side of her car with a spring in her step. Twenty minutes later Blair and Mike were sitting in Rosewood Community Park enjoying the sun and each other's company. There wasn't really anyone close by them so they could be afford to be somewhat affectionate towards each other, which Mike seemed to be taking full advantage of.

"Will you stop with that? I'm trying to read here Montgomery…" Blair asked trying to sound serious but failing to sound anything but serious as Mike's hands wondered up and down her back as Blair lay on her front, propped up on her shoulders reading a book.

"I thought we were supposed to be spending time together Swanson?"

"And we are!" Blair quipped.

"No. You're reading a book whilst I watch you read..." Mike began before plucking Blair's book out her hand and glancing it over, Blair rolled onto her back and watched Mike frown at the book. "Cyrano De Bergerac?"

"It's a very good book."

"I'll take your word for it." Mike murmured as he lightly tossed the book to the side before repositioning himself so he was lying on his side right next to Blair. The two of them laid there, just looking at each other for a couple of minutes before Mike turned his chest slightly so he was now kind of leaning over Blair and she knew that he was going to kiss her again.

"A kiss, when all is told, what is it? An oath taken a little closer, a promise more exact. A wish that longs to be confirmed, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love'. A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear, a moment of infinity humming like a bee, a communion tasting of flowers, a way of breathing in a little of the heart and tasting a little of the soul with the edge of the lips!" Blair quietly said as she fiddled with one of the buttons on Mike's shirt.

"Huh?" Mike questioned in confusion.

"It's from my book dummy." Blair clarified but Mike didn't respond, he just kept looking at her which normally would be fine but after a while Blair was getting a bit worried. "What is it Mike? Do I have something on my face."

Mike shook his head as he pushed a lock of Blair's hair out of her face. "It's nothing… Your really beautiful Blair, do you know that? I've never told you that before and I thought I should."

"Oh Mike…" Blair quietly said as she lifted up her head so she could kiss Mike, he was the sweetest boy she knew and here he was telling her that he thought she was beautiful. Blair honestly didn't think she could ask for a better boyfriend. Her relationship with Mike was very much different to her previous one with Rob in a few ways, at first Blair thought it was going to be hard and maybe a bit awkward going from being friends with one of her best friend's little brother's to then being his girlfriend. But surprisingly not, it all felt very natural which Blair was thankful for.

"Can I ask you something Blair?" Mike asked.

"Shoot."

"I don't know how you'll react about this as I've never heard you mention it once in all the years I've known you." Mike replied and Blair sat up as this sounded kind of serious as Mike was no longer using the playful and teasing tone of voice her had been using.

"What is it Mike?"

"I wanted to ask about your mom." Mike announced and Blair honestly didn't see that one coming as the whole mom thing was kind of never mentioned for obvious reasons as Blair was being raised by her single gay dad. "If you don't want to talk about it, then it's perfectly fine. I don't even know why it came into my head but it just did…"

"It's fine Mike, it's just that the whole mom thing isn't exactly black or white either is my conception… You know my dad?" Blair began.

"I do."

"Then you know he's like Anderson Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres' love child, anyway everyone knows he's gay and it's no secret but my dad had always wanted to be a father. He wanted to be a dad because of watching his own father raise him and my Uncle Grady, my Grandpa John to my dad is the most compassionate and caring person in the world. Who else would walk away and divorce the love of his life just because she couldn't accept their gay son. I'm getting a bit of track but anyway when my dad was twenty six years old he wanted to become a dad. But my dad couldn't do it through the convention way as my dad has never slept with a woman, always known he was gay so to have a child he went through different means." Blair began to explain.

"So how were you conceived?" Mike questioned.

"In vitro fertilization or IVF as it's most commonly known but to do that my dad needed an egg donor for his sperm to be fertilized with. So with some help from an egg donor agency my dad looked through this book to find the woman who was going to help him become a father. My dad looked through books which had loads of profiles of women until he found the woman who is my biological mother. Her name is Caroline and apparently she was an egg donor because she thought giving her eggs to be people who wanted to have a child but were unable to was the right thing."

"Do you know anything else about her?" Mike asked.

"Not a lot really, these things are generally anonymous in terms of what the donor is like but I know she was twenty four and was doing her masters in medieval English literature at the time when she donated her eggs and that there was something about her profile that really struck my dad. Then there was her hair, I get my auburn hair and my lips from Caroline and my dad is a sucker for any kind of red hair so he knew pretty quickly she was the one." Blair said.

"So your dad picked this Caroline woman and then his sperm was put in with her egg?"

"It's not that simple, it was all done in a lab as whilst Caroline's eggs were used she didn't carry me or even give birth to me. My dad used a gestational surrogate, another woman called Emily who was implanted with the fertilized egg and carried me to term before giving birth to me and going back on with her life. It's really complicated and I'm making the process sound easier then it actually was but my dad says I was worth it." Blair explained.

"Wow… So you don't know anything about either of these women? Who literally are the reason why you were born?" Mike asked.

Blair shook her head. "Nope, egg donation and surrogacy itself is very subjective. Some people are known the donors and surrogates personally and keep in contact with them and then other cases such as in my case are done anonymously because of personal preferences. I only know what I know from my dad and even he doesn't know too much himself."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Why should it bother me Mike? I've grown up knowing every day knowing how much effort my father put in to have me. I have a loving family which I admit is primary male dominated but I don't mind that." Blair questioned as she didn't exactly like the direction this conversation was going as she felt very defensive about it.

"I don't know Blair, maybe because you have no idea who your mom is all you have is a name and know that you share the same auburn hair." Mike explained and Blair was afraid of this, there was that age old argument about gay or lesbian people raising kids and people debating whether or not a child need a parent of both sexes.

"Caroline isn't my mom Mike, she is just the woman who provided an egg for my father to use nothing more and nothing less. If she wanted to be involved in my life then may have been in her profile. The surrogate who carried me for nine months and went through thirteen hours of labor isn't my mother either. I don't think of Caroline as my mom because she's not my mom and I don't want to talk about her anymore." Blair sourly stated, knowing very much so that she had kind of overreacted to this. She knew Mike meant no harm but most of her life she had encountered people who had a problem with a gay parent, single or with a partner raising a child.

"I didn't mean to upset you Blair." Mike said after a moment and Blair reassuringly tapped his knee.

"You did no such thing, don't worry about it."

"I think your dad's pretty great Blair and I'm glad that he went that all that effort to have a child because if he didn't you wouldn't be here and I don't like the thought of you not being in my life, or here at all…" Mike quietly replied.

Blair was taken back by what Mike had just said to her and she had to swallow a small lump in her throat as she realized that in time she could come to love this kind and considerate young man.


	11. Chapter 11

The next day after Blair's little trip to the park with Mike, she was practically in her own little bubble of happiness. Things were finally looking up in her life as she had her best friends back, well the majority of them, a new boyfriend and then her dad was off playing the famous author and being as happy as he could. Most importantly A was no longer causing havoc in her and the other girls lives, which meant that could once again be carefree teenagers again. Things weren't just looking up for Blair, Spencer had won a prestigious essay writing competition and Hanna's dad had come to Rosewood to visit for the first time since he had left which really excited Hanna as he hadn't seen her since she had lost all the weight. Blair thought that Mr. Marin's visit was down to the incident with Sean's car but nevertheless she was happy that Hanna was seeing her dad as it had almost killed her when he walked out on her and Mrs. Marin.

"Liebling, your food…"

Looking up from her history textbook Blair smiled at Petra as her housekeeper handed her a plate of Leipziger Lerche. They were a German pastry, which Petra had been making for Blair since she was a child. It was pastry or rather a short crust filled with crushed almonds, nuts and a single cherry. Blair adored them and loved eating them, so days like these when she came home to find that her housekeeper had baked a batch for her made Blair's day. "Danke oma…"

"You seem very happy of late." Petra noted and Blair nodded her head as she looked at her plate of Leipziger Lerche before picking one up. Blair knew she had to be careful as she could and would eat an entire plate of these in one sitting.

"I am happy, things have been going pretty well lately and I feel really good Petra. It's been pretty rough because of the whole Alison thing but it seems like everything is going to be okay. I have my old friends back, school is going okay and dad's just about to release his new book and he along with Grandpa John will be here just in time for my birthday." Blair explained.

"And what of this new boy of yours Miss Blair? Is he also a factor in your happiness…" Petra asked.

"New boy? What on earth on you talking about Petra." Blair questioned in between mouthfuls of her pastry, there was no way Petra knew that she was dating Mike. Whilst her housekeeper knew that Blair and Rob had broken up, Blair had gone to a lot of efforts to make sure Petra didn't find out about her and Mike. It wasn't because Blair didn't trust Petra, because she did as the German housekeeper was like her grandmother and the closest thing Blair had ever had to a mother figure in her life. It was just that Blair wanted to keep things quiet with her and Mike for now and the only reasons Hanna knew was because she had seen the two of together and was two dots away from connecting everything together. So Blair kind of hand no choice to tell her. Blair would tell her housekeeper, she just needed time not to mention she figured it would probably be best to tell her once her dad was back in time.

"You know what I'm talking about or rather who Miss Blair, you and Mister Mike. I know he has had feelings for you for a long time and that the two of you kept in touch whilst he was away. I saw you with him that night your friend's body was found and I realized that you have feelings for him too." Petra stated in her thick German accent and Blair had to give her housekeeper credit, the woman was quick as whip and very observant. No wonder why she kept both Blair and her father in line and manage to run their home.

Blair swallowed the pastry currently in her mouth and took a deep breath. "Okay you figured it Oma, Mike is my boyfriend now… I know it's not that long after Rob broke up with me but in my defense he moved on already which means that I can too. And I know that Mike is younger than me but it's not like I'm ten years younger than him, I'm a little over two years…

"He makes you happy, nein?" Petra questioned.

"Very."

"Nice boy?"

"Oma, you know he's a nice boy…" Blair replied not sure where this was going especially when Petra came over to her and placed both her hands on either side of Blair's face.

"I just want you to be happy Liebling, that is all I have ever wanted for you ever since the day you were born. 6lb 9oz, with a tuft of auburn hair and the most beautiful child that your papa could have ever hoped for. I have seen you grow up so wonderfully into a young woman through my own eyes whilst you have watched me grow old through your own eyes. But I do not want any babies yet Miss Blair, I am far too young to be a great grandmother and you will at least graduate college and have a job before you have any children. Is that clear?" Petra stated and at first Blair wasn't sure how to respond, the first part was so loving and she could hear Petra's affection for her. Until she got to the kids parts.

"Crystal clear." Blair replied, picking up another pastry and putting it in her mouth.

"Good girl." Petra said placing a kiss on Blair's cheek before going about cleaning up all the kitchen utensils she had used for baking. Blair watched Petra go about her business whilst she continued to eat until her phone went off. Picking it up from where it was sitting next to her Blair saw that she had received a text from Spencer. _SOS._

"Hey Oma, I have to quickly run over to Spencer's I'll be back as soon as I can but if I'm going to be late I'll text you and let you know." Blair said quickly sliding off her stool and all but sprinting out the house, picking up her house and car keys on the way. When Spencer set an SOS message, it was an emergency which required you to drop whatever it was you were doing. Blair knew to go to the Hastings house as Hanna had texted her earlier about being with Spencer after dropping off a drunk Wren at a motel. When Blair arrived at the Hastings house, she went in through the side gate and found the back door to be unlocked not to mention broken. Walking in Blair entered the kitchen and immediately she found a broken plant sitting on the kitchen counter and she started to fear the worst. First the broken door and now the broken plant. "Spencer? Hanna?"

"We're in my bedroom." Spencer yelled and Blair walked through the kitchen into the living room and ran up the stairs two at a time, down the hallway and into Spencer's room. At first she didn't noticed anything wrong except for Hanna and Spencer just standing there like they were frozen.

"What's the SOS?" Blair asked and neither of them replied, instead Hanna just pointed to something and following what Hanna was pointing to Blair saw that someone had written a message on Spencer's mirror with lipstick; It won't be that easy bitches – A. "Oh my god…"

"Our sentiments exactly." Hanna finally said.

"How? When?"

"Probably when we were taking Wren back to his motel, it was the only time I wasn't here and the back door was already broken thanks to Wren." Spencer wearily said and Blair could feel this bad feeling gnawing at her stomach. The text messages and that creepy poster was one thing, but A breaking into their homes was just something else? Their homes were supposed to be the place that they felt safe yet now there was nowhere safe for them.

"Spencer, you here?" A voice called out and Blair recognized it to be Aria's and she barely noticed Spencer leaving the room as her eyes were just fixated on the mirror as were Hanna's. The only time when Blair was distracted was when Spencer had returned with Emily and Aria in tow and the five of them just stood there.

"Is that jungle red?" Hanna asked as she took a couple of steps towards the mirror and the rest of them followed suit.

"Alison's colour." Emily grimly said.

"I'll say it again, oh my god…" Blair added before taking a deep breath, she didn't want to say what she was about to but Blair knew she had to. They had tried blocking out A and she still got to them in even worse ways and now they had some serious damage control to do. "You know what this means…"

"We have to let A back in." Aria quietly said.

"It was a good idea doing what we did but we should have known that A would have a back plan of some sort, she's always been two steps ahead of us. The text messages and notes were one thing but she's broken into your house now Spencer. I don't know about you guys but I'd rather be in fear of getting another text from A then being scared to go home and find out she's done something." Hanna stated.

"I agree." Spencer said after a moment. "I don't mean to sound like a massive wimp but do you guys mind staying over? It's just with my family out of town and A playing her mirror games in my house, I just don't want to be alone tonight."

"Of course." Aria assured Spencer.

To say the night's sleep was an easy one filled with sweet dreams would be to lie as Blair was pretty freaked out by the fact that A found it so easy to break into Spencer's house and leave them that creepy message. It her made and no doubt the other girls feel vulnerable and exposed and Blair didn't like that at all, not in their own homes. Due to their nerves and fear all five of the girls woke up early and sat having breakfast in the Hastings kitchen before they would have to go home and get ready for school. And as Blair sat an the Hastings breakfast bar with Hanna and Emily, Aria came into the room brandishing a letter.

"What's with the letter?" Blair asked.

"I have to tell you guys something." Aria wearily began. "The year before last, not too long before I left for Iceland I discovered that my dad was having an affair with this woman called Meredith, who was a student of his at Hollis."

"Aria…" Emily began.

"It gets worse. I confronted my dad about it and he said that he was going to end it and made me promise not to tell my mom and I didn't. I kept the entire thing secret for a year. I didn't want to hurt my mom and my dad kept telling me he was sorry and I thought if I kept quiet then nothing would change and we'd all be fine. Up until last night, my mom received this letter and it told her all about the affair and how I knew about it. A sent this letter to my mom…" Aria said looking over at the infamous letter as she sat on the Hastings couch.

"Aria you know this was not your fault, there is nothing for you to be feel guilty about. You were just trying to protect your mom and your family, if anything your dad is to blame. This affair is his mistake and he should be the one to bare that not you." Blair said.

"Totally." Emily added.

"It is my fault…" Aria quietly said.

"You did not hook up with her and ask your kid to cover for you." Spencer said in a firm but reassuring tone of voice as she handed Blair another bagel to eat which she so graciously took.

"Ali said I should have told my mom right after it happened." Aria said and at the mere mention of Alison's name, Blair turned around on her stool. Blair shouldn't have been surprised as she seemed to know all their secrets, she knew about Blair and Mike so why shouldn't she have known about Mr. Montgomery's affair.

"Ali? Alison knew?" Emily questioned.

"Yeah, she was with me." Aria replied and Blair accepted it as that as she went back to putting some cream cheese on her bagel.

"So Alison saw this Meredith person then?" Blair asked before taking a mouthful of her bagel and she saw from the corner of her eyes, Hanna rolling her eyes at the mention of Meredith's name.

"Meredith? Her name is Meredith? Ew… That's not even a cute girl name, I'm seeing big pores and mousy roots." Hanna casually said and Blair wasn't expecting to hear that and so when she started to laugh, she also began to choke on her food and Emily had to pat her on the back several times before the bagel went down her throat.

"Thanks." Blair hoarsely said as she reach for her glass or orange juice. "Han, I think it's a bit too soon to judge and all…"

"I'm sorry but if your going to cheat then you might as well make sure it's with someone who deeps conditions their hair occasionally." Hanna replied and Blair made sure to wait until Hanna had finished speaking to continue eating.

"Here, put something in your mouth besides your foot." Spencer stated handing Hanna a bagel on a plate who turned in her seat to face Aria.

"I'm sorry Aria, all I'm saying is that when my dad left laughing sometimes helped, so did crying." Hanna pointed out and Blair couldn't help but nod in agreement, her dad just so happened to do that every time he broke up with his current boyfriend. Not so much the crying bit but the laughing bit always came along with eating raw cookie dough.

"My dad hasn't left you guys, this happened over a year ago…" Aria said as she got up off the couch and joined them at the breakfast bar. No of them said anything in response but sometimes actions spoke louder than words. "Wait… You think he's going to leave?"

"Aria we don't that, we don't know anything for certain but whatever happen we're here for you." Blair said covering her mouth as she spoke with a mouthful with bagel and cream cheese before getting up from her seat. "I should really hit the road, I've got to check in with Petra and I also have to take Milo for a walk before school."

"Thank you guys for staying here, I couldn't be here alone." Spencer wearily said changing the subject.

"When's your family getting back?" Hanna asked.

"This afternoon."

"Aren't you going to clean up the mirror before they get back?" Blair asked as if Spencer's parents, specifically Spencer's mother saw the message A left for them on the mirror they would be in some serious trouble and answering a lot of questions. Spencer gave Blair a weary look about the entire thing. "If we do it now I can come with you."

"Sure." Spencer replied.

"We should all go." Aria added and pretty soon they were all getting up from their seat and walking away from the breakfast bar, all except for Hanna.

"Um… You know what? It doesn't take five of us to clean a mirror so why don't you four go and I'll just wait here?" Hanna suggested and Blair couldn't help but roll her eyes. Typical Hanna behaviour.

"Fine, okay… You stay down here. Alone, but make sure you lock the door…" Aria warned as she followed Spencer, Blair and Emily who were already by the foot of the Hastings staircase.

"Great, you spray and I'll wipe…" Hanna said sliding off her stool and hurrying over to the rest of the girls and moments after she joined them her phone went off revealing a message from A. _Ever wonder what's going on when your back is turned?_. "Great, the creature is back… You know we should have never unblocked our phones."

"And what? Continued to receive creepy radio shout outs and even more creepy messages on mirrors?" Blair retorted as the way she saw it, they had no choice in the matter. They had to unblock their phones otherwise risk a lifetime more of A breaking into their homes.

"Open the attachment." Emily prompted.

The attachment proved to be the next creepy thing as it was a video of them all, when they were standing in front of the mirror and they realized the person who filmed them could have only have done it from inside Spencer's closest. The five of them checked it out but all they could find was a tube of lipstick that just so happened to match the writing on the mirror. All of that just freaked Blair out even more, so after they finished cleaning the mirror she went home and got herself together. As freaked out as she was by the last twelve hours, Blair had school to focus on not to mention a quiz in French and a yearbook committee meeting to deal with as well.

"Hey Blair…"

"Mike…" Blair replied with a smile as she peered out of her locker to look at a boyfriend and she had expected to see a happy looking kind of boyfriend. But Mike actually looked the furthest from it, he had this worried expression on his face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Mike rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know really, I think there's something going on with my parents as their acting really weird at the moment and I keep picking up on this weird vibe. And the two of them are being extra friendly to me but acting weird with each other and I don't know really Blair. I hear raised voices occasionally but every time I go downstairs to see what's up they pretend everything is fine."

"Look Mike parents argue, it's just one of those things that just happen to every families…." Blair lightly said as she thought about what Aria had told them all this morning, about the affair. There was no way Blair could tell Mike as it was clear he was in the dark about the entire thing. Aria had told her in confidence and even though Mike was her boyfriend, Aria trusted her to keep this secret. Not to mention it was a family matter. It was going to kill Blair to play dumb and act like she didn't know why Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery were playing the arguing with smiles game and pretending like everything was fine around Mike. But she had to.

"How would you know?" Mike questioned and Blair was stunned to hear him say that, so much actually that she thought she was hearing things at first.

"Ouch." Blair said after a moment.

"Blair, I didn't mean it…"

"I may be the kid without the mother as my dad went about the unconventional ways of having a kid. But I know what it's like having people you love, the people who've raised you argue and you don't know why. I may have the gay dad and the German housekeeper but I do understand Mike." Blair quietly replied.

"I'm so sorry Blair, I didn't mean to say that. It just came out and I didn't mean to imply that you wouldn't understand because of your dad. You understand everything or just attempt to, it's one of the reasons I like you so much Blair. I really didn't mean what I said Blair…" Mike said and without drawing too much attention to herself Blair brushed her fingers against Mike's.

"I know you didn't mean it Mike, you're just worried about your family and that's understandable. I don't know why your parents may or may not be arguing, but what I do know is that you can always call me or even come round if you need to distract yourself from it."

"I may have to take you up on that…"


	12. Chapter 12

On her way home from her yearbook meeting Blair decided to stop by the dentist office where Hanna was working in order to work off the damage that she had done to Sean's car. Ironically the dentist Dr. Ackard was Sean's mother, an incredibly religious woman given that she married a priest and a notorious gossip, so Hanna was probably suffering and praying for the entire deal to be over. So Blair decided to pop over, see how Hanna was doing and the moment she walked into Dr. Acker's office Blair saw that it was practically empty save for Hanna was sitting at the front desk, in front of a computer looking bored out of her mine.

"Why so glum Hanna? I thought you were interested in the world of dentistry specifically fake looking veneers." Blair began, referring to a veiled insult Hanna had used towards her future step-sister Kate over dinner after she had made some comment that had irritated Hanna. The moment Blair had finished Hanna's head had snapped up so fast that Blair was sure she had given herself whiplash. "Easy there Han…"

"Blair, what are you psychic or clairvoyant?" Hanna said.

"Neither, why?"

"Because I'm in the middle of sending you a text asking you and the others to meet me at the Grill tonight. Something happened earlier and it completely freaked me out. I had just run some stupid errand and when I was in the elevator and who just so happens to walk in? Jenna. At first I didn't say anything as it's Jenna and who likes talking to her in the first place? Anyway she's standing in front of me when she pulls out a tube of lipstick, the same brand as the one we found at Spencer's this morning and the exact same shade; jungle red. I'm freaked out enough but then she goes and starts applying it." Hanna began and Blair was having a hard enough time following Hanna as she was speaking so fast and so quietly but she kind of got the gist of it.

"Jenna was applying lipstick, okay that is a bit odd but nothing to get too suspicious about." Blair wearily said.

"The girl may be blind but she sure knows how to put on lipstick perfectly, I am not exaggerating when I say it was flawless. None of it was out of place Blair, not even a tiny bit on her teeth. It was like Jenna was using her reflection in the elevator doors to apply it."

"But that's impossible Hanna, given that Jenna is blind. I admit that the being able to apply the lipstick flawlessly is weird and creepy in a way but maybe she knew how to do it from practice. Or she was taught it when she was away at school."

"But the whole having the same exact lipstick as the one we found is a bit creepy." Hanna couldn't help but point out and Blair couldn't help but agree with her. That was very worrying but there was no way that Jenna could be the one responsible for the message on Spencer's mirror and videoing their reactions. Blair hated to use this reason yet again to rule out Jenna as possibly being A but Jenna was blind. And she knew that she couldn't rule Jenna out simply because of that but it was highly unlikely that Jenna was the one responsible for breaking into Spencer and writing the message and filming them.

"True, did you see what floor she got off?" Blair asked moving things along.

Hanna nodded. "Yeah but I don't know what's on it."

"Maybe it's worth finding out, it could have something to do with A." Blair couldn't help but suggest and seconds later her phone went off and taking it out off her bag Blair saw that it was a message. But it wasn't any normal message as it was from A and it wasn't just a message, it had a picture of her kissing Mike by her car from the other day.

"Blair what is it?" Hanna asked and Blair just wordlessly handed over her phone to Hanna. "_Taking babysitting to a whole other level, aren't we B? I would say send my kisses to Aria's little brother, but you seem to have that covered. – A_. Well we knew that A was back Blair but it seems like A is badder than ever."

"I know but I'm worried that A is going to out my relationship with Mike given the letter that Aria's mom received telling her about Mr. Montgomery. With everything Aria has on her plate with her parents I don't want to drop another bombshell on her. Then there is Mike, you know this morning he came up to me looking all sad and worried. He told me he thought something was going on with his parents and he didn't know what and you know what I did? I played dumb, I acted like I didn't know what was going on in the slightest. I just told Mike that parents argue and it's probably nothing. I am such a liar and a bad girlfriend." Blair said with a sigh as she took back her phone.

"B…"

"I know that this is his family we're talking about and I can't tell him Hanna, Aria told us in confidence and I can't betray that trust not even for my boyfriend. I stood there and lied to Mike and for the rest of the day I kept telling myself that I did the right thing as it was a family matter and his parents would tell him when the time is right. But no matter how much I tell myself that I just feel so guilty, Mike has no idea what is going on and he's so worried about his parents and I'm lying to his face about it." Blair quietly said and before Hanna could say anything Dr. Ackard walked out of her office.

"Blair what are you doing here? Is there something wrong?" Dr. Ackard asked with a smile and Blair forced one back, she wasn't too keen on the good dentist given that Dr. Ackard didn't agree with homosexuality. She tolerated Blair's dad and kept him and Blair on as patients as Blair once heard her say it was what Jesus would do.

"No, Dr. Ackard I'm just here to make an appointment."

"For yourself? I just saw you a month ago and there didn't seem to be anything wrong."

Blair shook her head. "For my dad, he keeps complaining about grinding his teeth and you know what he's like. Always seems to purposely forget to book a dentist appointment so I figured I'd come down and book one for him for as soon as possible. Dad's been avoiding this for so long and I figured the sooner I get him in here, the better. Probably could do with a cleaning too given all the win and steaks he's been having whilst he's been away…"

"So your dad's coming home soon? That's nice." Dr. Acker said in an attempt to be polite and Blair nodded her head, she knew she had to be careful around the dentist as she had quite the reputation in Rosewood and was very involved with the town.

"The day after tomorrow hopefully, he's just got a few more bits of promotional stuff for his book and then he's back home for a while, which will be very nice." Blair replied.

"Well Hanna, please schedule Mr. Swanson in for an appointment in for the first available time after the day after tomorrow and then I need you to come and clear some things away for me." Dr. Ackard said before excusing herself back into her office and the second she did Hanna rolled her eyes.

"Kill me, now…" Hanna grimly said.

"If I did, I'd have no one to be miserable with now would I?" Blair quipped and there must have been something sad about the way that she said that as the next second Hanna placed a comforting hand over Blair's own.

"It'll be okay, even if it isn't you have us." Hanna assured Blair.

No matter how much Hanna had reassured Blair, she still felt incredibly guilty about the Mike thing. It was hard not to as she knew the secret that was currently in the midst of tearing his family apart. Blair just had to keep reminding herself that no matter how bad she felt it wasn't her place to tell Mike about his dad's affair. Some one in his family, specifically his dad or his mom needed to be the ones to tell him and hopefully soon before Mike figured it out for himself.

The next day Blair pretty much took the day to herself, she ran a few errands such going grocery shopping with Perta, went to the florist to buy some flowers for the house and got a quick hair cut, nothing too major just a quick trim and a good condition. Homework then took up a big chunk of her Saturday as she had tests to study for along with an essay to write. Then came walking Milo or Milo The Dog as Blair frequently referred to him as, Milo was her two year old Dalmatian who was admittedly kind of the love of her life. There was the saying about dogs being mans best friend which was literally the case with Blair and Milo as he slept on her bed, they went running together and they'd often watch tv together.

As Blair was walking home with Milo after going on a rather scenic but brisk twenty minute walk with him she walked past the Montgomery house and as she did she saw both Aria and Mike walk down the driveway. "Hey Montgomery and Montgomery…"

"Hi Blair and Milo!" Aria said in a cheerful manner as Blair stood at the foot of the Montgomery driveway waiting for them. "Wow, he's got so big."

"I know, lucky for him the bigger he gets doesn't seem to affect how cute he is." Blair said as Aria stroked the top of Milo's head and he wagged his tail in a very excited manner. Like Blair's dad, Milo loved lapping up any attention that was sent his way.

"So you two have been on a walk?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I need the exercise and Milo The Dog doesn't do well being cooped inside all day, his temperament requires both a lot of mental and physical exercise but he has calm down a lot since you guys left for Iceland. The training has kicked in and his stamina isn't as high as it was when he was a puppy. MTD has picked up on the wavelength of the Swanson house so he's just pretty mellow and happy dog most of time." Blair stated before she noticed the bag that Aria and Mike were carrying. "You guys heading out somewhere?"

"The Library." Mike replied and it was clear as day that he was not happy on this.

"When have the two of you started going to the library on Saturdays? I thought you were the Montgomery's not the Hastings." Blair quipped and it only managed to raise both a small smile from Aria and Blair.

"We just needed to get out of the house for a bit." Aria said and immediately Blair picked up on the fact that it must be something to do with their parents. Given what Mike had told her yesterday, they were probably arguing hence the younger Montgomery's feeling like they had to go to the library to escape the drama at home.

"Well how about I make you a better offer? Instead of the library come over to mine where you won't have to whisper, studying is optional, Milo and myself will be there and we will provide great entertainment not to mention Petra is cooking up a storm." Blair offered.

"We don't want to inconvenience you Blair–" Aria began.

"–And you won't be, look we'll study and then do something fun although I do have to practice the piano for about twenty minutes. But I really want you guys to come over so I'm not actually going to give you the optional of saying no to me. Just think of it as an early birthday present." Blair replied with a bright smile and she knew that Aria had caved as there was no way she was going to turn down the soon to be birthday girl.

"Fine, you win Blair."

"Of course I do!" Blair said with a bright smile as she linked arms with Aria pulling her along with Milo whilst Mike followed them the short distance from the Montgomery house to her house. After opening the door and shuffling Mike and Aria, Blair took Milo off his lead and shut the door. "Oma, we have guests!"

"Oma?" Aria questioned.

"German for grandmother." Mike casually stated and Blair was actually impressed that Mike knew what Oma meant.

"How'd you know that?" Aria asked and Mike looked around uneasily before pulling himself together.

"I read occasionally." Mike replied just as Petra walked into the foyer and Blair walked over and placed an arm around her housekeeper.

"I call Petra my oma because she's more than just our housekeeper, she's been with me since the day I was born and with my dad for two years before. So she's been apart of our family for nineteen years. Petra has her own family, she has three grown kids of her own who me and dad share her with. But I think I love her the most and I don't know what I'd do without her in my life." Blair honestly said.

"Miss Blair, I see you have returned with Miss Aria and Mister Mike." Petra said and Blair could have sworn that there was a smile in the corner of her housekeepers mouth.

"Hello Petra." Aria began.

"Hi Petra." Mike added.

"Would you children like anything?" Petra asked and immediately shook her head.

"No we're fine and even if we need anything then I'll get it myself, you just go back to what you were doing. We're just going to hang out and maybe study some bit so don't worry about us." Blair said in a rather hurried manner.

"Liebling, stop worrying as I will have everything ready for your birthday on Monday. I always do. I have never let you down Miss Blair and I do not plan on doing so, so smile and be happy." Petra said placing a kiss on Blair's head before untangling herself and walking away, calling for Milo to follow her as she headed back into the kitchen.

"Blair, is it okay if I use the bathroom?" Mike asked.

"Mike you don't have to ask me, go right ahead you know where it is." Blair replied and so off Mike and Blair waited until he was out of sight until she turned to Aria. "So your parents, huh? How bad?"

"Very. Mom found out it was Meredith who my dad was having an affair and everything's just blown up, they are arguing all the time and my mom even broke a photo of the two of them. So it's pretty bad Blair, she's so mad with him and I get it and she has every right to be but I don't want my parents to split up…" Aria quietly said.

"Does Mike know?" Blair couldn't help but ask.

Aria shook her head. "Not about Meredith but he's suspected something is wrong and now he knows there is something really wrong. I think he must have overheard something yesterday or today as he knows about the affair. If mom and dad aren't fighting their avoiding each other and it's kind of hard not to pick up on."

"It'll be okay, even if it's not okay you've got us. Both of you do and you are always welcome here when things at home get to hard to deal with. Plenty of space and we have lots of ice-cream, tearjerker films and comedies." Blair assured Aria and she meant it, she would be there no matter what for both Aria and Mike.

"Thanks Blair, you don't have to do this." Aria said.

"Yes I do because you're my friend and friends are there together no matter what, do you remember when my dad broke up with that guy Avery? He was devastated and I was at a loss of what to do as Petra was sick so you and your mom came over. Your mom took care of my dad with lots of wine and the two of us hung out. Anytime I'm in trouble or upset about something I can always count on you Aria, so I'm going to be here for you during this time." Blair replied with a smile just as Mike arrived. "Okay now that young Mr. Montgomery has arrived, I suggest we do half an hour of studying and then blow off some serious steam. It's a nice day and too nice of a day to waste it studying."

"I like the sound of that."

"Of course you would Mike." Aria retorted and Blair couldn't help but catch the smiles of the siblings faces, Whatever was going on at their house was clearly taking a toll on them both.

"Don't worry Lieblings, there is always something to do in the house of Swanson." Blair said in a loud exaggerated manner only to be interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and slowly she turned around to see that her dad was home, one day early. "Hey…"

"Hey, is that it? I go away for a week and I come home to only receive a hey from my only child who I admit I was expecting to get a bit more of a reaction from. I wasn't expecting much, well maybe a bit more than a hey… In my head I imagined you yelling out daddy whilst you ran into my arms and then I would spin you around. Is it because your friends are around? Blair Swanson, do you think you're too cool to greet your old man anymore?" Reed questioned with a smirk on his face and Blair rolled her eyes as her dad turned his attention to Mike and Aria. "Hey kids… You see what I have to put up with? All my hard years of raising this girl have seemed to go to waste as Blair thinks that just because she's about to turn seventeen she's not my little girl anymore."

"Oh shut up!" Blair chuckled before walking over to her dad and hugging him.

"There it is, the one thing that I live for." Reed said as he placed a kiss on the top of Blair's head.

"Welcome back Mr. Swanson, how was New York?" Aria questioned.

"Oh it was great Aria thanks for asking, could have easily stayed there for another week before I got bored but I had to be back home. I always make sure I'm back home with Blair for the day before her birthday as we thought she was going to be born September 12th and it looked like she was. I was sitting there with all my things, a bag of nerves thinking that my baby girl would be coming today but no. As per usual Blair took her time, finally arriving into this world at 12:02 am on September 13th." Reed stated.

"He's only mad because he lost the pool…" Blair quipped.

"Enough about me kids, so tell me what's happening? You better make it quick though as I smell Petra's cooking…"

Blair looked at Mike and Aria who were standing next to each other and she was a loss of what to say to her dad. So she decided to go with her new routine of lying when in doubt. "Erm… Nothing much."


	13. Chapter 13

"So let me see if I've got this correct… In the time that I've been in New York, Rob broke up with you because he met this girl over the summer, the two of you ended on good terms so now your dating Mike Montgomery. And Aria doesn't know about it yet, your working with the other girls on the memorial for Allison, you aced your calculus test, taught Milo a new trick and found out that Bryon Montgomery cheated on Ella with one of his students before they moved to Iceland and you booked me a dentist appointment whilst in the middle of studying for the SAT's?" Reed asked as he and Blair walked around the local book store on a Sunday morning, her dad had some business to sort of there as he was going to do a book signing when his book was going on general sale next week. Blair tagged along so she hang out with her dad a bit as although she had been busy whilst he had been gone, she had certainly missed him.

"That's pretty much all of it dad." Blair said, excluding the fact that she had some anonymous person somewhat stalking her and the rest of her friends with weird messages and signed them with the letter A. Blair also left out the Detective Wilden part as her dad would freak out if he knew Wilden had been sniffing around, questioning them at school and just being a general pain in the ass.

"Here I thought you'd be bored with your old man out of town." Reed said with a chuckle.

"Not really as you can see." Blair lightheartedly replied.

"So you and Mike, eh? That was kind of unexpected but how are things going between the two of you?" Reed asked.

"Really good so far, we're keeping things quiet until after Mike's birthday and right now he's got a lot on his plate with everything that's going on with his parents. Mike's not sure what's going on between them as things keep changing but I've told him that maybe they'll work it out... Then there is the whole telling Aria that I'm dating her little brother which I'm not sure how she'll react to hearing. So you can't tell anyone at the moment dad as it's top secret, only you, Petra and Hanna know about me and Mike for now and I'd kind of like it to stay that way until I figure out how to go about anything." Blair idly explained as her and her dad continued walking around the bookshop occasionally stop to glance over at some books.

"Sure thing sweetheart but you should tell Aria, the sooner the better…" Reed began before he noticed something or rather someone. "Excuse me Blair, I've just spotted Leslie, so I'll quickly grab her and sort out this last minute business for the book signing next week and then we can go to lunch. Go look around and if you see any books you want, pick it up and we'll get it."

Blair watched as her father walked away to sort out his business and Blair took her father's advice and wondered around the bookshop, casually glancing at books until she came face to face with Mr. Fitz; her new unbelievably good looking new English teacher. "Hey Mr. Fitz…"

"Hi Blair."

"What are you doing here Mr. Fitz?" Blair began until she realized how silly that was of her given that if she was in here looking for a book, other people would be too including Mr. Fitz. "Stupid question, your in a book store so your obviously looking for a book."

"Don't worry Blair, it wasn't a stupid question as generally I do go to bookstores to buy book but I'm actually here to pre-order a book, one of my favourite authors has a new book coming out next week. He's actually a local here in Rosewood… Reed Swanson, you may have heard of him?" Mr. Fitz explained and Blair couldn't believe her luck. Her hot English teacher had just told her that he was a fan of her father's work.

"I know him very well actually, Reed Swanson is my dad." Blair announced and she couldn't help but notice the smile that graced Mr. Fitz face and Blair was lucky that she didn't start swooning there and then given how easy on the eyes Mr. Fitz was and that smile of his looked like it was carved by an angel. Blair had to remind herself that whilst Mr. Fitz was nice to look at, she did have a boyfriend. A very nice one at that.

"Of course, your surname is Swanson too… I should have realized as I doubt Swanson is a very popular name here in Rosewood. Forgive me for sounding very wax lyrical about your dad Blair but I am a big fan of his work, I have all his books and they've been read many times to the point where they would be completely be worn out if I didn't have them in hardback." Mr. Fitz said and Blair couldn't help but smile, she was proud of her dad but hearing people talk about being fans of his working and how much they enjoyed his books always made her beam with pride.

"Well he's here if you want to meet him Mr. Fitz?" Blair offered/

"I couldn't do that, the two of you are clearly spending time together and I don't want to interrupt that."

"Mr. Fitz, I spend more than enough time with my dad and trust it's fine, my dad loves all the attention his books bring him and hearing how much someone enjoys his work is like motivation for him. Hearing what his fans things always makes him want to be constantly deliver for his readers which pushed him to make each book better." Blair explained in an attempt to convince her English teacher that he wasn't going to interrupt the precious Swanson daddy daughter time by coming over to meet her dad.

"Are you sure?" Mr. Fitz questioned.

"Yeah, it's no problem." Blair replied as she motioned for Mr. Fitz to follow her and the two of them went about looking for her dad, until they found him standing near the cash register just finishing up his conversation with the manager of the bookstore Leslie.

"Blair I thought I told you to come back with a few books I could buy for you, I'm pretty sure I didn't say about a man because as you know slavery is illegal and something we do not support in the slightest." Reed began and Blair just rolled her eyes, some of her dad's jokes were not funny in the slightest.

"Dad I'd like you to meet Mr. Fitz, my new English teacher..." Blair began making introductions. "And Mr. Fitz this is my father Reed Swanson."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Swanson, I suppose you hear this all the time but I'm a huge fan of your work." Mr. Fitz said and Reed stuck out his hand and the two men shook hands.

"I never tire of hearing it and please call me Reed."

"Then feel free to cell me Ezra." Mr. Fitz said and Blair couldn't help but mentally say the name in her head, Ezra Fitz. It sounded like a very nice name and it seemed to fit Mr. Fitz very nicely. Good name for an incredibly handsome man. "You gave a lecture at Hollis two years ago to my class and I was mesmerized by how you explained the use of metaphors and symbolism in your writing. Not to mention the dark imagery you use and your references to Edgar Allen Poe in all your work."

"I think it's becoming apparently obvious that I am a huge fan of the works of Edgar Allen Poe, I find him along with Shakespeare and Kurt Vonnegut to be absolute geniuses.""

"We are what we pretend to be –" Blair began.

"–So we must be careful about what we pretend to be." Mr. Fitz finished.

Reed laughed. "Very impressive."

"So dad I ran into Mr. Fitz and you'll never guess what? He was here to order a copy of The House of Octavious. Apparently he has all your others books…" Blair explained.

"Is that so? I'm very flattered as the fans are the ones who have put me here so it's good to give back, so Ezra how would like a copy of my new book a week before it goes on general sale?" Reed offered and Blair could see that Mr. Fitz was slightly taken by this offer. "There is a box in my office filled with about fifteen copies of The House of Octavious, I'll sign a copy for you and I'll have Blair drop it off to you at school tomorrow."

"I'd love that Reed but I can't accept that, it's not fair to everyone else who has to wait."

"I like you Ezra, you're a man of good morals and obviously good taste, not to mention your teaching my daughter the joys of English yes you can accept this. I just ask that you let me know what you think of the book, oh and be of help to Blair if she ever needs it. You'd think that having an author as a father would have her come to me on help with English assignments but no she doesn't come to me. I offer but she never excepts my help as she claims that I'll influence her and it won't be her work, but my work under her name." Reed explained.

"I'll do my best." Mr. Fitz said, and after a few more minutes talking with Blair and her dad he excuse himself and went on his way.

"Blair I know you mentioned Mr. Fitz briefly, but I see you neglected to mention just how good looking Ezra is. The man is absolutely beautiful, wonders how you manage to pay attention in class…" Reed noted and Blair couldn't help but laugh. Her dad was a funny one but he did speak the truth.

The next morning was a Monday but not just any Monday, but Blair's 17th birthday and it was a beautiful day or it started off as one until Blair had received an early morning message from A on her front step when she was leaving for school. By the door there sat a small white box, the kind you got from bakeries. On top of it was a small envelope with Blair's name written on it and when she opened it the card read _Happy Birthday B, better eat your cake and enjoy it when you can –A._ Despite knowing the package would no doubt be anything good Blair still found herself opening it and she was write. Inside the package was cupcake, but not any normal cupcake. It was a worms and maggots cupcake and upon seeing it Blair's breakfast had almost made another appearance. Blair quickly discarded of the birthday present from hell and made her way into school.

Upon her arrival Blair was greeted by Noel Kahn all of people who scooped her into a bear hug before wishing her happy birthday very loudly. After thanking and detangling herself from Noel, Blair walked away and was going to go grab coffee but on her way she walked past Mr. Fitz's class. Backtracking a couple of steps, Blair stood in the doorway of his class and knocked on the doorframe. "Mr. Fitz?"

"Hey Blair, come on in…" Mr. Fitz said.

"I have the book for you." Blair began as walked over to Mr. Fitz's desk and pulled out the copy of her father's newest book and handed it over to Mr. Fitz.

"Wow… Thank you so much Blair."

"Wait, there's more. My dad said to take a look inside as there was something for you." Blair said and she watched as Mr. Fitz gingerly open the book and flick through the pages and then she watched as a smile appeared on his face.

"To Ezra, whilst I am incredibly lucky to have you as fan in reality it is I, who is a fan of what you do. They so those who can't do teach but I've never been one to believe that, as it was an English teacher just like you who natured my talent to write and encouraged my dreams. You may not know it but you inspire those angry teenagers and someday once the ranging hormones have settled down, they'll thank you for everything you've done for them. – All the best Reed Swanson." Mr. Fitz read out and after he did Blair watched as he took a deep breath and sighed. "Your dad really has a way with words."

"He does." Blair agreed.

"After meeting your dad yesterday and talking to him, well the both of you I went home I remembered something about your books. So I went home to check to see if I was right and I was, you are the beloved Blair who your father dedicates every single one of his books to." Mr. Fitz stated and Blair slowly nodded. "It's a very sweet thing for him to do."

"Do you want to know why he does that?" Blair asked.

"Isn't it because he loves you?" Mr. Fitz questioned and Blair couldn't help but chuckle.

"That's true but it's actually because my dad finished the first draft of The Sinners Paradise when I was six weeks old and sent it to a publisher and they liked it and told him that they wanted to publish it. The Sinners Paradise went on to be a best seller and it kick started my dad's career as before then he had been rejected numerous times. In terms of the dedications my dad dedicated the first one to me for nostalgic reasons as he had just became a dad. But since then he does it because under some weird notion he believes I'm his lucky charm, he says that I'm the one who changed everything for him as it wasn't until I was born that he became a success." Blair explained.

"You don't seem to believe that Blair, if you don't mind me saying." Mr. Fitz stated and Blair laughed.

"Not really, I've read everything my dad has written and he always been a brilliant writer, with or without me in his life." Blair couldn't help but point out.

"So you've read The House of Octavious? Any chance of you telling me or giving a small inkling of what to expect?" Mr. Fitz asked.

"No way, I'm not going to spoil it for you but what I will say is that it's good, it's very good and I'm not just saying that because my dad was the one who wrote. It's a good continuation of The Heart of Continuation, it builds on it in so many ways and some of the things that take place in it will have an affect into how the final book plays out." Blair replied.

"So you know how the trilogy is going to end?" Mr. Fitz said picking up on what Blair said.

"I cannot confirm or deny that I have any knowledge into how the Octavious trilogy will end…" Blair said and it caused both her and Mr. Fitz to laugh. "I've got to run Mr. Fitz, but enjoy the book and let me know what you what you think."

"I will." Mr. Fitz said as Blair turned around and began to make her way out of the room. "Blair?"

"Yeah?" Blair asked turning around.

"Happy birthday… I couldn't help but over hear Noel Kahn yelling it down the hallway for the entire building but nevertheless happy birthday."

"Thank you." Blair replied giving Mr. Fitz a smile before turning around and leaving his class, the second she left the class Blair saw the girls who had clearly seen her and been watching her.

"Hey… What's up with you and Mr. Fitz?" Aria asked and Blair just shook her head.

"Oh that? It was nothing really, me and my dad into Mr. Fitz yesterday afternoon and it turns out he's a big fan of my dad's work so my dad decided to give him an advanced copy of his new book. I was just dropping it off for him and Mr. Fitz and I just ended up talking about stuff and turns out he's really cool for a teacher…" Blair idly said.

"Enough about Mr. Fitz! I know the guy is seriously hot but today the attention is not going to be on him or how good looking he is but rather on the fact that is our favourite auburn headed girls birthday! Happy birthday Blair!" Hanna said in a rather excited manner as she threw her arm around Blair's shoulders.

"Happy birthday B!" Emily added.

"Today is going to be great, we're going to have fun, relax and not worry about anything apart from working on making this Blair's best ever birthday." Spencer stated and Blair couldn't help but smile. Her friends were amazing and she loved them so much and her birthday was going to be great just because they were all together, "Nothing is going to get in our way, not even A…"

"Yeah about A…" Blair began.

Aria sighed. "Seriously? We can't even get a break from A on one of our birthdays?"

"Left a cupcake of maggots and worms on my front porch this morning with a note, telling me to enjoy my cake and eat whilst it lasts in her usual joyful and heinous manner. It was kind of freaky…" Blair admitted and Hanna just shook her head in disbelief.

"God that bitch can't even cut us the tiniest bit of slack but you know what? We are not going to let her get to us on today of all days. She can send as much insects cakes as she likes, but it's not going to change the fact that we're celebrating Blair's birthday!"


	14. Chapter 14

Despite the horrendous gift that she had received from A early that morning Blair was actually having a really good birthday, it was a beautiful day in Rosewood and Blair was surrounded by her best friends. There was no other people who Blair would rather be with and she had all of Petra's tasty treats waiting for her back at the house. Blair didn't care too much about the gifts as she was more concerned with the food as every year Petra made all of her favourite foods and snacks. It was like all the food you ate at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter all rolled into one and then some, it was probably enough to give you diabetes and trigger heart disease but Blair justified it by telling herself that her birthday only came once a year. When the bell went for the day Blair all but jumped out of her seat in an effort to meet the girls and head over to her house,

"Slow down Blair!" Emily called out as Blair quickly made her way up her porch towards the front door.

"But I'm hungry and I want to eat until my belly pops!" Blair whined as she really wanted to eat, she had even eaten a small lunch today so she could have space for all the food she was about to eat. Just thinking about everything that Petra had cooked made Blair all the more eager and that wasn't taking into consideration her birthday cake. If there was one thing that Blair loved just a bit more than her family and friends it was food. Blair had a self described black hole for a stomach and she liked nothing more than sitting with Petra in the kitchen and letting her housekeeper try out new recipes on her. Opening the front door Blair left the door open for her friends as she walked into the foyer and dropping her bag to the side. "Hey I'm home…"

"About time…" A voice said and Blair's eyes widened in surprise when an older man with grey hair walked out of the living room and into the foyer.

"Grandpa! What are you doing here?" Blair squealed as she ran over to her grandfather and hugged him, she could not believe that her Grandpa John had come all the way to Rosewood from where he lived in New Hampshire. This had made Blair's day complete, as she loved having her grandfather coming to visit, as he was so fun and very relaxed. He was generally a nice person to be around.

"You didn't really think that I'd miss my eldest grandchild's seventeenth? I've been in town since yesterday because I wanted to surprise you and I thought my suggestion to come and surprise you once you finished school was better than your father's suggestion on having jump out of a cake." John explained and Blair couldn't help but grin as her father often came out with bizarre idea's like that. "Uncle Grady and the rest of the family wish they could be here today but they sent me down with several gifts for you."

"As much as I love gifts, I'd rather have them." Blair admitted, as she would take her family over material things any day. Her Grandpa John was the patriarch of their family and had instilled the importance of family in his own. When Blair and her dad would go to New Hampshire to visit the family, they'd all get together at her grandfather's house to have dinner and then go watch a movie together in the living room. Some of Blair's best memories were of doing just that with her family

"You never change Blair, still so sweet…" John said just as the rest of the girls walked into the living room. "Hey girls."

"Hi Captain Swanson." Spencer said getting Blair's grandfather by the rank he held upon his retirement from the United States Navy two and a half years ago. People greeted him at Captain Swanson but generally referred to him at the captain or just John depending on who the person was.

"Now that everyone is here, the party can really get started and I can finally be allowed to eat!" Reed announced in a flamboyant manner which caused everyone to laugh and after a few moments they all headed to the dining room where Blair's face lit up at the sight of the entire table being fully covered in all of her favourite dishes and more. Surrounded by some of the people closest to her, in room filled full of her favourite food all just to celebrate her birthday made Blair's day. It didn't matter to her that she wasn't born through the most conventional methods, that she had a gay dad who had the most dynamic personality that she had come across. It didn't matter that her and her friends were being blackmailed and taunted by some anonymous person who hid behind texts and weird gifts. All that really mattered to Blair was that they were all together.

"Thank you Oma!" Blair said forty minutes later and with a mouthful of a coconut macaroon before swallowing it all down with a glass of milk. Blair was well aware that she was probably eating her own body weight and more in food. As they all ate and laughed together the front door went off and John excused himself to get it whilst everyone continued to eat. Moments later Blair's grandpa reentered the dining room with a small box in his hands.

"Some boy just dropped this off for you Blair." John said and Blair put down the macaroon that she was going to put in her mouth to walk over to her grandfather. Blair took the small white box from her grandfather and slowly undid the silver string tying it together. Slowly opening the box Blair saw that inside contained a beautiful silver necklace that had a circular tag attached to it on this tag was a swan centered on both side, the first side of the necklace had words inscribed on the tag behind the swan. Whilst on the other side it had words etched on the swan. As she looked at the necklace Blair noticed a small bit of folded paper in the side and putting the necklace back in the box Blair picked up the paper and opened it.

_To the most beautiful swan I know, happy birthday Blair!_

"Excuse me…" Blair quiet said as she put the box down on the table, whilst there was nothing to say who the gift was from on the paper Blair knew who had sent it to her. She knew who it was from because she recognized the handwriting from all the letters that she had received from this person over the last twelve months. It was Mike.

"Blair…" Aria began.

"I'll be right back I have to take care of something real quick…" Blair murmured before briskly walking out of the dining room, into the foyer and out of the front door. If Mike had delivered his gift like Blair had suspected then he couldn't be too far away. Hastily walking down the porch Blair spotted Mike, he wasn't too far gone only about thirty meters away and so she started running towards him. "Mike!"

Hearing his name being called cause Mike to stop much to Blair's relief as she preferred not to have chased him all the way. Blair continued to run towards him and when she reached him, she threw her arms round his neck and she kissed him. Not caring that they were out in public where anyone could see them. After Blair had seen the gift that Mike had no doubt gone to a lot of trouble to get, the pieces all kind of fell into place and all the worries she had about what people would say about her dating Mike and their tiny little age gap just disappeared. It no longer matter to Blair anymore. "B-Blair, what are you doing?"

"I don't care who see's us Mike, I know I made you agree to wait until after you turned fifteen to everyone about us but I simply don't care anymore. I want to be with you both privately and publically, I want people to know that you're my boyfriend Mike Montgomery." Blair stated in a very confident manner as she didn't care what people thought anymore, all that mattered to her was that Mike and her had feeling for each and they wanted to be together as they made each other happy. That was the only thing that really mattered here, everything else was just minor. "Come to homecoming with me."

"Excuse me?" Mike stammered.

"You heard me Mike Montgomery, I want you to come with me to the homecoming dance. I'll wear a nice dress, you'll wear a suit and we'll go to our first dance together and have fun like every other teenagers. I know this may be a lot but this is me trying to be spontaneous and maybe a bit romantic although I don't think it's really working out… But anyway this is me asking you out because I really like you Mike." Blair explained knowing full well that she sounded like a sappy idiot, which Mike seemed to be bringing out in her with each passing day.

"You know my sister and the rest of your friends are watching us from your porch." Mike couldn't help but point out and Blair wasn't fazed, she didn't even turn around as that didn't matter anymore. Hanna already knew about the two of them and now the rest of the girls did. Blair would deal with them and their reactions once she was done here with Mike.

"That doesn't matter to me, all that matter is you giving me an answer Mike." Blair stated and she watched as a broad smile spread across Mike's face.

"Yes, I will go to homecoming with you." Mike finally replied and there was just this overwhelming rush of happiness in Blair, her heart was bursting with it almost as everything seemed to be going right. There was no more lying, keeping secrets and sneaking around. She no longer had to hide the fact that she had a boyfriend. Blair leant up and placed a kiss on Mike's cheek before taking a step back and holding out her hand to him.

"Come with me."

"Inside your house?"

"Yes Mike inside my house, now we're out in the open you can come to my birthday party as my boyfriend." Blair said as she watched a frown appear on Mike's face which was kind of worrying which caused her to put her hand down. "What is it? You don't want to come?"

"No it's not that Blair, I just think I should pass on this one… No doubt Aria is going to want an explanation and I'd rather not be around for that not to mention your grandfather, the former Captain in the navy is there. I don't want to intrude so we'll do something in the week, just of the two of us. I'll call you later." Mike said placing a hand on Blair's cheek and giving her a gentle kiss before walking away and leaving her stunned. It took Blair a minute or two before she finally summoned up the courage to turn around and finally head back to her house. And when she finally did Blair could practically feel the girls' eyes on her, almost burning a hole through her head with all their staring. When Blair finally reached the porch she stood in front of her friends not sure what to say.

"So… Anyone else hungry?" Blair asked saying the first thing that came to mind.

"If you think we're going to let you go back inside and eat instead of not talking about you and my brother, you are seriously mistaken Blair." Aria firmly stated and Blair just sighed.

"How long has this been going on?" Spencer asked and Blair wasn't exactly sure how to explain it all or how she was even supposed to begin but she knew she wasn't going anywhere until she had explained this to her friends.

"It's complicated. I was going to tell you eventually, well after Mike's birthday as me turning seventeen and him still being thirteen you'd think it was weird. But anyway this thing with Mike has been going on for a while. Sort of. It's hard to begin but it kind of began before you left for Iceland and then you left and it stopped but Mike and I kept in touch. We just sent letters as I was dating Rob, then we were on that break then he dumped me and–" Blair began sounding like a complete and utter mad man who was sprouting pure and utter nonsense until Hanna walked over and stood next to her, no doubt to save her.

"Aria, what Blair is trying to say very badly is that this thing with Mike has never been just one sided. We all knew that Mike had a massive crush on Blair but the thing is she had feeling for him too. But then you left for Iceland and Blair started going out with Rob but when you and your family came back Blair found out that Mike still had feelings for her. They got together after Rob had broken up with Blair…" Hanna explained and Blair was so relieved at being saved she would have hugged Hanna in that moment.

"I didn't know how to tell you Aria, how to tell any of you… Hanna literally figured it a few days ago after she saw Mike and I talking. I know Mike is your brother Aria and that kind of complicates thing but I wouldn't be doing this or being with him if I didn't have feeling for him. I really do like him Aria and I promise you I didn't tell him a thing about your dad and his affair because you matter to me as much as Mike does. I just wasn't sure how to tell you because I didn't want you to hate me for this." Blair said trying her hardest to sound her very sincerest as she didn't want to lose Aria over this. Blair stood there with Hanna by her side, facing Aria, Emily and Spencer. No one said anything for a moment but then Aria stepped forwards her. Blair wasn't sure whether Aria was going to slap her or hug her, she hoped it was the latter.

"Oh Blair, I could never hate you. If you and Mike want to be together than it's fine with me. I always did kind of think that the two of you would look rather cute together and now I know I was right…" Aria warmly said as she took Blair's hands in her own. It had been an emotional day for Blair with the whole birthday thing and all the surprises she had got, then the Mike thing. But getting Aria's approval was something else entirely and that was the straw that broke Blair's back and she just burst out crying.


End file.
